


Throw

by Jelly



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-29 18:31:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 41,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1008644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jelly/pseuds/Jelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She throws him over his shoulder like he's nothing more than a bag of potatoes, and it blows his mind in more ways than one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone has to do a high school au at some point in their fanfiction writing career. SORRY NOT SORRY.

**I.**

**Facebook**

**Eren Jaeger** commented on his own status

 **Eren Jaeger** with **Jean Kirschtein** and **Marco Bodt**  
I am an annoying little shit that no one likes  
 _8 Likes_

 **Eren Jaeger  
** Fuck you Jean

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Jean, Marco

How the fuck did you two even get my phone

-

**New Text Message**

From: Jean

To: Eren

You make it too easy

x

Eren scowls at the screen and shoves his phone back into his pocket without bothering to reply. Jean is generally regarded as a dick by everyone, and, to be honest, Eren is mostly used to it – they are dicks to each other and they spend most days trying to piss the other off because it seems like the most entertaining thing to do. Today, though, is the wrong day to screw around because Eren is exhausted and he’s late for a class and he’s at least 80% sure he won’t be forgiven for it. Judo is about discipline and he doubts very much that tardiness fits into that category.

The phone buzzes in his pocket again, but he ignores it in favour of dodging other people along the sidewalk. He’s already ten minutes late (because of Jean, that asshole), and while his sensei, Hannes, is a family friend, every minute he’s not there is another extra set of push ups, and he knows it.

He skids to a halt outside the building and races in, throwing his shoes off at the door and his bag into the free locker in the hall, and he’s just about to fly into the boy’s changing room when something that feels like a much smaller body slams into his chest and stumbles back onto the floor. In his haste, Eren trips over it and hits his head against something hard. Stars explode in his vision, and he’s pretty sure he’s swearing pretty badly right now but _fuck_ his head hurts and –

_“What the actual fuck?!”_

The voice is shrill and angry, and Eren winces, trying to force his vision to focus on the speaker.

He _thinks_ it’s a girl, it’s hard to tell with imaginary lights popping in front his eyes but Eren’s pretty sure he’s seen her somewhere before, but he’s not sure where. “Sorry,” he manages, sort of awkwardly untangling himself from the mess. He holds a hand out to her. “I didn’t see you – ”

“Of course you fucking didn’t,” she snaps, ignoring his offer and getting to her feet on her own. “You’re late, Jaeger.”

Eren blinks at her, vision clearing slightly. “I know, sorry, I – ”

She holds up a hand. “I don’t care. You’re late, and I think you gave me a concussion, so get the fuck ready before you make this worse for yourself.”

Eren blinks again, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms to clear his sight, and when it does, he has to make a physical effort not to stare. It’s a girl, all right, with bright, crystal blue eyes and pale blonde hair, and he’s certain he knows her now – she sits two seats ahead of him in home room, and while she can be nice when she wants to be, she has a reputation of being cold and intolerant to bullshit (of which he’s well aware he’s full of). “Hold on a sec – _Annie?”_

Annie scowls at him. “Yes. Me. Congratulations.”

He frowns a little. Annie’s a loner at school, yes, but he’s known her at least a couple of years now. She’s one of the tiniest members of his home room class, and she usually presents herself as such - he can’t say he’d ever imagined seeing her at a place like this. “You... train... here?”

“I don’t,” she snaps. “I work here.”

Perhaps his head is still a little sore, but he blinks at her again and steps back. “You... _work_... here?”

“Holy shit, the rumours are true.” She glares at him. “You’re as clumsy as you are dumb.”

Eren stares at her as if he’s forgotten to function. In all honesty, he kind of has. He’s not sure what to say at this point because Annie looks ready to murder him but he still feels _really_ confused and he’d really love an explanation as to what’s going on. He opts for something in the middle. “Uh. Okay. Sorry about what happened. Where’s Hannes-sensei?”

She’s still glaring at him when she answers. “He’s taking a couple of months off to recover from a knee injury. You would have known that if you were here on time.”

“What?” Eren makes a face. “I can’t train without an instructor – he would have called to cancel – ”

Annie snorts loudly and it’s obvious from her face that she’s now equal parts amused and pissed off. She folds her arms across her chest. “You _are_ an idiot, aren’t you?”

Eren, evidently, is still trying to figure it out. “ – maybe he got someone to cover for him. I wonder who it – ” His stops abruptly. His eyes widen. The penny drops. “ _Oh my God.”_

Annie raises an eyebrow at him.

“ _You._ ”

She smirks. “Me.”

“ _Fuck._ ”

x

Annie makes him do five sets of extra drills that night: two because he was late, one because he’d almost given her a concussion, and two more because he’d held up her – Hannes-sensei’s – class. For someone his age, Eren has always considered himself pretty good at martial arts, but Annie – _holy shit, Annie_ – she’s on a different level entirely.

She’s been in his home room class since he started high school, and he knows she’s only a couple of ranks below Armin in Math and almost on par with Mikasa in gym, but he’d never, _ever_ expected someone who makes herself look small and delicate on purpose to be trained in three different kinds of martial arts, two of which he’s never even heard of until tonight.

He walks home afterwards with an odd sort of limp and sore spots from when he’d landed badly after she’d tossed him over her shoulder like he was a bag of potatoes, and he thinks, for all her stoicism and her general sort of done-with-everyone’s-shit attitude, she’s actually kind of fucking _awesome_. It’s funny, he thinks, that someone so small could kick his – and everyone else’s – ass without so much as batting an eyelash.

He’s still thinking about it when Mikasa opens the front door for him. It’s quiet otherwise, and she doesn’t need to tell him that she’s the only one still awake.

“You’re home late,” she comments idly. “How was training?”

Eren makes an odd sort of sound in his throat that sounds somewhere in between an actual reply and a grunt of pain. He stumbles inside and collapses face forward onto the nearest couch.

His foster sister raises an eyebrow at him. “What happened to you?”

“Hannes is recovering from a knee injury,” he tells her, voice muffled by the upholstery. “You’ll never believe who’s taking classes in his place.”

“Annie is,” says Mikasa, and Eren makes a noise of surprise and tilts his head up to look at her.

“How do you know that?”

She snorts and rolls her eyes at him before she heads into the kitchen. “Hannes called,” she says, returning with a jar of cookies. “He said you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Is that what that was?” Eren wriggles his arm out from under him and pulls the phone out of the pocket of his uniform pants. He glances at the screen and makes a face at it when he spots the missed call. “Oh.”

Mikasa smirks and offers him the jar. “So how was it?”

“Annie’s a bully,” he says, sitting up and accepting it gratefully, “but _holy fuck,_ Mikasa, she knows her shit.”

“Oh?”

Eren nods and stuffs a cookie in his mouth. “She kicked the crap out of me.”

“Like that’s difficult to do to begin with,” teases Mikasa, and she slips into the seat next to him and takes back the jar.

Eren shoots her a glare. “That’s bullshit,” he grumbles, propping his feet up on the coffee table. “She really does know her stuff though. Hannes wouldn’t have asked her to do it if she didn’t. It’s just... unexpected, I guess.”

“You probably should have had at least some idea.” Mikasa tosses her hair back and pulls another cookie out of the jar. “Her dad owns the gym on the other side of town. I thought I told you that. Then again, it’s you, so I’d hardly be surprised if you hadn’t been listening.”

Eren grunts a reply and tilts his head back against the cushions.

There’s a little bit of a pause broken only by the sound of clock ticking from the corner of the room, and Mikasa heaves a sigh and shuts the lid of the cookie jar. She’s never been much of a night owl, and it’s a little surprising to Eren that she’s up so late tonight, but she places the cookie jar on the coffee table and steps over his legs and towards the hall.

“I’m going to bed,” she announces.

“Right,” mumbles Eren.

Another pause.

“I noticed Jean got a hold of your phone again.”

 Eren scowls. “...Shut up.”


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She’s a little annoyed actually, because hey Eren, she’s pretty decent at hand-to-hand too, and they’ve been foster siblings since they were nine years old but okay, fine, ask Annie first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Shout out to bayalexison who probably doesn't even ship ereannie but is still putting up with me <3
> 
> 2) I have finals in two weeks so this could go one of two ways:  
> a - I don't update for two weeks or  
> b - I update a lot over the next two weeks  
> I just got back into writing, and it's a really really enjoyable way to procrastinate, so it's hopefully going to be b. Fair warning though.

**II.**

**Facebook**

**Franz Hoffman** is in a relationship with **Hannah Blaire  
** _Sasha Braus and 12 others like this._  
 **Connie Springer**  
Fucking finally amirite  
 _20 likes_

x

Mikasa doesn’t quite understand why everyone else thinks it’s so cute because she watches Franz and Hannah interact from across the cafeteria and honestly thinks they’re the most awkward couple she’s ever seen in her life. She’ll agree that it’s been a long time coming because she – and everyone else – has been seeing them dance around each other since seventh grade – but Franz is far too new at this and Hannah is far too shy to voice what she wants.

They’re sitting alone at the table nearest the window, and Hannah’s hand rests innocently next to her tray while Franz sits across from her looking as if he doesn’t know if he’s allowed to reach over and touch her hand.

This frustrates Mikasa a lot because while she’s generally against public displays of affection, for heaven’s sakes, if you’ve become Facebook official, it’s pretty frickin’ obvious that hand holding is okay. She’s about to introduce her forehead to the table when Eren plops down beside her with a groan.

She raises an eyebrow at him. “It’s been two days and you’re still sore?”

“No,” he says defensively, taking an aggressive bite out of his apple. “...yes.”

She frowns, concern wearing at her features. “Don’t you think Annie may have been a little tough on you?”

Eren shrugs. “To be honest, I think she did pretty good. Maybe Hannes started easy on me because it’s been a while since I’ve been this sore. It’s a good kind of sore though, I promise.”

This does little to ease Mikasa’s worries, and she’s pretty sure she’s actually a little more concerned about it now. Eren has always had a habit of getting into fights, and the entire point of having him enrol in martial arts was so he’d be able to do it constructively. She thinks that maybe this has been more effective than anyone planned for, because now he actually sounds masochistic which she doesn’t quite think is healthy, especially because this is Eren. She doesn’t get a chance to say anything about it, though, because Armin slides into the seat across from them and greets them with a grin.

“Hey Armin,” Eren says, swallowing a mouthful of apple. “Have you had a look through that assignment Miss Zoe handed out yet?”

Armin makes a face at him. “You’re not going to copy off me again,” he says outright, starting on his mac and cheese.

“What makes you think that’s why I was asking?” Eren fakes a look of offense and tosses his apple core at the nearest bin. “Geez, Armin, I’m not that bad, am I?”

Armin gives him a look and Mikasa answers for him.

“Yes,” she says. “Yes you are.”

“Traitor,” he grumbles, folding his arms petulantly across his chest. “I wasn’t going to copy, I swear, I was just wondering if I could get a look at it so I could get an idea – ”

“ _No,_ Eren,” says Mikasa sternly. “You can’t keep copying off us, do it yourself for once.” She gives Armin a look and adds, “Don’t you _dare_ let him, if I hear he’s got your assignment, I swear to God – ”

“He’s not going to get it,” asserts Armin, and he glares at Eren. “She’s right, Eren, you’ve gotta do this stuff on your own. You know you can get kicked out of college for that kind of thing.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but I’m _not_ in college yet, am I?” He sighs. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll do this one on my own and still pass, you’ll see.” Huffing stubbornly, he slumps in his chair and, to Armin and Mikasa’s surprise, bolts straight upwards again when he spots Annie walking into the cafeteria. “Hey, look!”

The other two raise their eyebrows in unison.

Armin swivels around and spots her too. “It’s Annie,” he says, turning back to scrutinize Eren.

“Yeah.” Eren shuffles a little and glances at them. “What?”

“Didn’t she beat you up the other day?”

“Pffffffft.” He waves a hand at them and gets up. “Nooo, she didn’t beat me up. We just sparred. And I lost. But no, okay, she didn’t beat me up – I’m gonna go talk to her.”

Mikasa frowns at him and tugs him back down into his seat. “What’s gotten into you?”

“What do you mean ‘what’s gotten into me?’ She’s our friend.”

Armin looks at him like he’s gone a little weird and Mikasa will be honest – she can’t blame him. Eren’s been acting a little funny since the day Annie took over Hannes’ class – funnier than usual, that is because he’s brought her and her skills up more than once a day since when he’s never cared much about her before. Mikasa won’t say she’s jealous because she’s not; she and Annie have always considered each other rivals, and maybe it does bother her a little that Eren evidently shows an appreciation for Annie’s  skills more than he’s ever shown for hers, but it’s _not_ jealousy. Jealousy implies a fear of loss, and there’s certainly none of that.

She shakes her head. “I really don’t think she thinks of us as her friends,” she says carefully. She exchanges glances with Armin, and they don’t need to speak to know that it’s really just the politest way to disagree.

Eren blinks at her. “We don’t know that,” he says, brushing her off and getting up again. “Seriously, it’ll be fine. I just wanna talk about her techniques. I’ll be back in like five minutes.”

“Eren...” Miksasa calls after him, but he’s already up and halfway across the cafeteria.

x

He’s not back in five minutes. Mikasa’s been watching the whole time, and actually, rather than have a quick chat like he said he would, he’s followed her to the table she shares with Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Fubar on some days, and it’s obvious, even from here, that Annie is not pleased about the gatecrasher to their table.

Mikasa can almost sympathize. She and Eren grew up together, and she knows better than anyone how quickly he can go from lazy-ass teenager to hyperactive five year old, and Annie Allergic-to-bullshit Leonhardt is not prepared for either one.

“Do you think we should do something about this?” Armin asks her, and she tears her eyes away from the other table to look at him.

“About what?”

Armin jerks his head in their direction. “Eren. Annie looks like she wants punch him in the face.”

“Just leave him,” says someone else before Mikasa can consider it. She glances up to see that Jean and Marco have come to join them, and that Jean’s giving her the suavest grin he’s got. “If she wants to beat him up, we can have lunch and a show.”

Marco gives his best friend a look and rolls his eyes. “Bit early for Eren to start causing trouble, isn’t it?”

Armin gives a sort of shrug in reply. “Bit,” he agrees. “I don’t think he really wants to cause trouble today, though. It’s just... Annie’s temper is pretty notorious.”

“What’s got him so interested in her all of a sudden?” Jean asks, slipping into the seat next to Mikasa and making an attempt at moving closer than he knows he’s allowed.

Mikasa catches on quickly. She moves to lift her bag from the floor and drops it into the space between them before he can move any closer than she’s comfortable. “His judo instructor’s recovering from a knee injury.” She ignores the disappointment on Jean’s face. “Annie’s the replacement.”

Marco blinks. “ _Really?”_

She nods. “From what I’ve heard, she’s a rough teacher.”

“She beat him up,” translates Armin.

Jean pauses in his dejection for a second to snigger. “He got beat up by a girl?”

Mikasa eyes him sharply. “Do you need to be reminded that that’s possible?” she threatens, and Jean makes an odd noise in his throat and snaps his mouth shut. Satisfied, she turns back to Armin and Marco. “You have home room with them, don’t you, Marco? Do me a favour and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid?”

Marco raises an eyebrow at her, but he nods regardless. “Sure, I guess. But you know how Eren is – he’s an idiot but he knows how to take care of himself. Plus, you know, Annie’s mean sometimes but it’s not like she’ll do anything terrible. Don’t worry too much about him, yeah?”

She huffs a little. “It’s difficult not to when you know him as well as I do.”

x

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Mikasa

Annie said she’d teach me other stuff. I know it’s not my usual training day but am heading to the dojo again with her after school. See you tonight.

x

Mikasa receives the text while she’s finishing a physics exercise in Mr. Levi’s class and she glares at her phone feeling more irritated about this than she should be. Eren’s sixteen – he’s free to do whatever the heck he feels like, but going to the dojo later with Annie means he’ll be home late again in more pain than the other day.

They are foster siblings, and she loves him dearly, but not enough to want to deal with him when he’s being a whiny dick who can’t move because he’s trained a little too hard, and that’s exactly what he’ll be tonight, and she knows it. She’s a little annoyed too, actually, because hey Eren, she’s pretty decent at hand-to-hand too, and they’ve been foster siblings since they were nine years old but okay, fine, ask Annie first.

She scowls at the text message and texts him back under the desk with an irritated “ _Fine”_ before Mr. Levi can catch her with her phone out in the middle of class.

“Something the matter, Ackerman?”

Too late. “Uh.” She shoves the phone in her pocket and glances up at her physics teacher. “Sorry, sir.”

He scrutinizes her carefully and examines at the almost finished assignment on her desk. “I’d better not see that phone again,” he warns, before he heads further down the room to check on other people’s progress.

She waits until he’s well out of earshot before she blows an irritated huff.

She’s not _jealous,_ she reminds herself. She’s _not_ because that would make her _petty_ , and she knows she’s better than that. She’s just as good as Annie – there’s proof of that in the trophy cabinet outside the gym - and she’s just as smart, if not smarter, and if Eren would really rather learn Annie’s techniques than consult her about hers, then fine, whatever, she doesn’t care.

She doesn’t realize that she’s gripping her pencil a little too tightly until Sasha, who’s sitting nearest to her on the bench, taps her shoulder.

“You okay, Mikasa?” she whispers. “I know this phys assignment is frustrating but don’t break your pencil over it.”

Mikasa scowls again. “It’s fine,” she snaps through gritted teeth, and she rounds on the other girl and glares at her without really meaning to, and Sasha blinks and holds up her hands.

“Whoa, okay, sorry.”

Mikasa sighs. “No, Sasha, I’m sorry,” she says tiredly, pressing her fingers against her eyes. “I’m... a little on edge today. I apologise.”

Sasha tilts her head at her curiously. “Maybe you should go home early?”

“No.” Mikasa shakes her head and looks back at her assignment. “I’m fine.” She stares at it for five minutes before she’s distracted again, this time by Franz and Hannah who are sitting two benches ahead with their fingers delicately twined around each other’s.

She huffs a little like a braying horse and picks at her pencil.

_Fucking finally indeed._


	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie has never really dabbled in gossip, nor has she ever really been the centre of everyone’s attention, but it’s days like today that she remembers how quickly gossip gets around the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bay still gets shout outs because she's still putting up with me.

**New Text Message**

From: Reiner

To: Annie

That Jaeger kid still following you around?

**-**

**New Text Message**

From: Bertholdt

To: Annie

Soooo what’s up with you and Eren?

-

**Facebook**

**Mina Carolina > Annie Leonhardt**

You and Eren had lunch together? What’s going on there? ;)

x

Annie has never really dabbled in gossip, nor has she ever really been the centre of everyone’s attention, but it’s days like today that she remembers how fucking _quickly_ gossip gets around the school. Her phone buzzes with all three notifications while she’s retrieving a couple of textbooks from her locker at the end of the day, and she stares at them for a whole second before she tosses it into the pile of books and bangs her forehead lightly on the cool metal of the locker.

It’s fucking ridiculous, she thinks vehemently, because she could have sworn she spoke to Eren only once three hours ago, and maybe he did sort of follow her around in the two classes they had together since, but no part of that should be anyone else’s business, and it frustrates her to no end that they do everything to butt in anyway. What are they? Thirteen?

She takes a breath. No, she thinks. She’s not going to rise to this. She’s never bothered with that kind of bull crap before and she’s not about to indulge them today or ever. Maturity is hard to come by already, and she refuses to sink to their level, so she picks up the phone again, rereads the notifications (another breath) and turns it off without replying before she shoves it into her jacket pocket.

She slams the locker shut (one more breath), and nearly stumbles backwards when Mina’s face appears where the door had once been.

“Soooo,” the other girl begins with a cheeky grin. “Is it true?”

“Are you fucking serious?” It’s not a question, and Annie can feel all the effort she put into keeping her cool ebbing away.

Mina gives her a look. “Come on, Annie,” she says. “Everyone knows that you’re really picky about who you hang out with – it’s only fair for them to be curious when you start hanging out with people you don’t usually talk to.”

“We weren’t _‘hanging out’_ ,” snaps Annie, slinging her bag over her shoulder and starting down the hall.

Mina follows, hands tucked into her pockets and nudging her elbows against her friend’s. “He joined you guys for lunch.”

Annie snorts. “He was uninvited,” she says shortly.

“You let him follow you around in history _and_ stats.”

“What should I have done instead? Flipped him on his back in the middle of class?”

Mina sighs and prods her shoulder. “Just tell me what’s going on, I promise I’ll leave you alone afterwards.”

“Really, Mina?” deadpans Annie. “Will you really? Because you and I know each other pretty well by now, and I am 100% certain that you won’t.”

Mina shrugs. “Yeeeah, well, I can _try_ to leave it alone afterwards, that’s something right?” She chuckles. “Please, Annie? I’m your friend, and _someone’s_ gotta help you dispel the rumours. The less you say, the more people will talk.”

“ _Or,_ ” starts Annie, glaring at her friend, “everyone in this school can learn to mind their own fucking business. How hard is that?”

Mina huffs. “You’re impossible.”

She doesn’t continue, and Annie thinks she might really let the subject drop. This is somewhat rare for Mina, because while she is one of three people at this school that Annie actually likes, it’s in her nature to be sweet and outgoing and _very_ talkative. It’s generally regarded as surprising that they get along so well because Annie is literally her polar opposite.

They’ve just about made it outside of school grounds and are about to go their separate ways when someone calls out to her from behind.

Annie turns, and so does Mina, and it’s something Annie regrets immediately because the speaker is Eren, and suddenly Mina is grinning again.

The words that come out of Eren’s mouth don’t help.

“We’re still on for tonight, right?”

Annie doesn’t look, but she knows Mina’s grin is getting wider by the second, and Eren is standing there looking so hopeful because he’d spent literally three hours trying to get her to agree to this and it’s far too late to back out now, even if it is just for Mina to leave her alone.

She clenches her jaw and nods.

“Awesome!” Eren says cheerfully, and he grins at her too and starts off in the other direction. “See you later!”

Mina waits til he’s out of earshot before she nudges Annie’s shoulder. “So... do I get an explanation now or what?”

Annie scowls at her friend. “No.”

x

Hannes-Sensei runs three classes in the Trost City dojo: an advanced judo class on Tuesday afternoons and two junior classes on Saturday mornings. Annie is temporarily in charge of all three, but while she doesn’t have to be there often at all, she keeps her gi in the lockers there during the week to save her from lugging it to school and home again, particularly because she lives on the other side of town.

Eren has gone home to retrieve his own gi, and had promised to meet her there no later than four o’clock this afternoon . As she has nothing better to do, she stops in at the cafe Reiner works at because it’s on the way and she has half an hour to kill.

The little bell at the door dings lightly as she enters, and it’s quiet enough (for now) that Reiner can afford to stand inattentively in a counter. He’s doodling away on a napkin when Annie slings her bag onto the bench and takes a seat on one of the stools.

He glances at her and smirks. “You never answered my text,” he says smugly.

Annie glares at him briefly and picks at the nearest menu. “It wasn’t any of your business,” she answers. “Are you gonna take my order or what?”

“Don’t be _that_ kind of customer, Annie.” He snorts, scrunching up the napkin and tossing it into the nearest bin. “Just a mocha, as usual?”

She shrugs. Annie’s not really a fan of caffeine, but she needs the hit sometimes, and she finds the mochas here are a good in-between. Reiner’s been working at this cafe for about a year now and she and Bert come to visit often enough that he’s learned to make them just how she likes. She’s never been one to make small talk either, so she appreciates that Reiner knows her well enough not to start conversations about stupid things. He’s actually a grade above her, but they’ve been friends for a few years now, and she trusts him more than most, so, in the end, it doesn’t surprise her when she sighs and says “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Oh?” Reiner slides over a disposable cup, and she nods in thanks and hands over the appropriate amount of loose change.

Annie shrugs a second time. “He just wants to learn a couple of different techniques.”

“And you agreed,” Reiner says, walking around the counter to join her on one of the stools. “That’s why everyone’s so surprised, you know. The entire school knows how picky you can be.”

She shoots him a glare. “He made it difficult not to,” she grumbles, sipping at her coffee. “He frickin’ followed me around in stats and history, and he wouldn’t leave me alone until I said yes.”

“Normally, you would have punched him or yelled at him or something,” Reiner points out.

“In class?” she deadpans.

He takes his turn to shrug and reaches across the counter to straighten a pile of napkins. “So, what, are you going to tell people when they ask or are you going to let them come to their own conclusions?”

Annie can’t help but snort into the cup. “Mina said the same thing.” She glances at the clock on the far wall and hops off the stool. “Maybe,” she answers at last, shifting her bag onto her shoulder again. “I should head off.”

“You should probably,” Reiner tells her, watching as she heads for the door. “Tell people, I mean. Don’t let Bert think he’s figured it out on his own because you know how he feels about you and the conclusion he’ll come to won’t be the right one.”

She pauses in mid-step, hand stilling on the door handle. “He’s better off with you, you know,” she says quietly. “I know he swings your way too.”

“He picked you,” Reiner says with another shrug. “So, yeah. Let him know too, won’t you?”

Annie sighs. “All right, I guess.”

x

She heads straight for the instructors’ locker room when she arrives, drops her bag into the nearest empty locker, and changes into her gi without very much fuss. Judo, she thinks, is a relatively safe martial art: it’s all throws and grapples and choke holds – it’s gentle in name and technique, and, personally, she thinks that it’s far too soft for her. She much prefers Muay Thai – mostly because she’s known it for longer and because it’s a rougher sport in general. She doesn’t like holding back, and Muay Thai is far more her style because of that.

Maybe that’s why Eren is so eager to learn it. She knows of his history of getting into fights – perhaps Judo just isn’t enough for him.

She drains the last of her coffee and tosses it into the bin in the hall before she heads into the spare practise room. It’s a lot of a surprise when she finds that Eren’s already there.

He grins at her. “Check it out, I’m early!” he says as if it’s a rather big accomplishment.

“So you are,” she says, a little taken aback. “That’s unexpected.”

Eren chuckles sheepishly and lifts a hand to rub at the back of his neck. “This is kind of exciting, okay,” he tells her. “Your technique’s really cool.”

Annie raises an eyebrow at him but he’s such an honest kid that she can’t really tell him off for being so hyper about it. It’s an interesting comparison to the Eren Jaeger she knows from school, who is arrogant and obtuse and full of bullshit excuses for stupid things. This Eren is eager and excitable and full of awe instead, and she doesn’t really know which she prefers just yet.

She doesn’t realize the amount of time she spends thinking about this until Eren coughs awkwardly.

“How do you want to start?” he asks.

“Well,” she says, shaking herself from her thoughts. “Uh. I guess we can’t really start until I know what you know. Let’s see what you’ve got first.” She shifts into an easy fighting stance and raises her fists so that they are level with her eyes. “Come at me.”

Eren stares at her. “Wait, really? You want me to just go for it?”

Annie huffs impatiently. “Do I need to repeat myself, Jaeger?”

He hesitates. “Uh. Okay. Here I go.”

He charges at her, but he gets maybe five steps forward before Annie swings out a leg and lands a hit on his shin. He yelps and scrambles a little, clawing at the air in a poor attempt to stay up, but he’s down in literally a second, and Annie blinks at him looking moderately surprised.

“ _Fuck, are you kidding – ”_

Annie ignores the stream of curses. “That was fast,” she notes.

“Shut up,” grumbles Eren, stumbling to his feet. “I was holding back. Let me try again.”

He does, and this time he tries to take a hold of the collar of her gi only she’s too fast for him, and she ducks under his arm, wraps her fingers around the plain of his cheek and kicks his knees out from under him. He falls flat on his back before he’s even realized it, and she peers over him, blonde hair straying over her eyes.

“How long have you been doing Judo?” she asks him.

He scowls up at her. “Since I was, like, ten,” he manages, sitting up. “Fuck, that hurt. Who taught you this stuff?”

“My dad.” Annie studies him thoughtfully. “The techniques you asked about are from a kick-boxing style from Thailand, and the reason you suck at it right now is because it’s _very_ different to what you’ve been taught.”

“I couldn’t tell,” Eren snarks.

She silences him with a glare. “Do you still want to learn?”

Eren snorts. “Of course I still want to learn,” he says, getting up again. “Geez, Annie, what do you take me for?”

She snorts too. “Basics first,” she begins, assuming her stance again. “Fists up high - higher – there you go – and feet apart, one in front of the other.” She examines Eren’s form as she instructs and, dissatisfied, she ambles over to move his feet closer together. “You’re too… I dunno, _rooted,_ “ she tells him. “This isn’t Judo, remember – you have to be able to move quickly or you’ll get punched in the face, so ease up a bit and put more of your weight on your toes.”

Eren adjusts his stance and glances at her. “Is this better?”

Annie hums thoughtfully and examines his stance from every angle. Then, without warning, she kicks at the back of his knees.

“ _Shit!_ ” Eren stumbles forward and reacts in time to keep himself from landing flat on his face. “What the fuck was that for?” he snarls, rounding on her.

She shrugs. “No, your stance was not better,” she tells him with an amused smirk. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

x

She puts him through his paces that afternoon, and when he leaves, he looks close to the walking dead. She waits until he’s gone and she’s alone in the instructors’ locker room before she takes the phone out of the pocket of her uniform jacket and turns it back on.

x

**New Facebook Friend Request**

**Eren Jaeger** has added you as a friend.  
 _Accept/Decline/Not now_

 


	4. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eren doesn't quite understand why Annie refuses to accept his friend request.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Sorry it's a little late - Still have like three final exams to go.
> 
> 2) Shout out to Bay for the same reason as always.

**IV.**

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

Got your number off Mina. I can’t feel my arms.

-

**New Text Message**

From: Annie

To: Eren

wtaf i thought you said you’d stop bothering me if i taught you some of my techniques

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

accept my friend request

x

“You know, I’m pretty sure there’s scientific proof that training for more than three hours a day is bad for you.” 

Eren’s lying on his back on the couch with his feet slung over the arm rest at the other end when he glances up and spots Mikasa sitting idly at the kitchen table. She has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and her hair is mussed, so he suspects he might have been in bed until he let himself in.

 “Oh,” he greets, hitting the send button and locking the screen. “Hey. Sorry. I woke you, didn’t I?”

“No,” she answers. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“That’s kinda weird,” comments Eren. “You’re usually out like a light by, like, nine. Is everything okay?”

Mikasa nods. “Kinda worried about you, though. Can you even move?”

 “Pff. Yes.” He snorts like it’s a stupid question and makes an attempt at sitting up to face her properly. He fails. “...Okay, fine. No.”

He doesn’t need to need to see the face she’s making to know she’s giving him her patented I-disapprove glare. “This really isn’t good for you, Eren. I mean, it was fine when you were doing it once a week, but training for like five hours – “

“Four,” Eren corrects her. “We take breaks, and I promise it’s not as bad as you think. Besides, Annie’s done worse.”

She silences him with another glare. “I think Annie’s being too rough on you.”

“It’s only because I’ve just started learning her stuff. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll be adjusted to it fine.”

“Eren...”

There’s a sigh and Eren huffs into the upholstery. “What’s the matter, Mikasa?” he asks, rolling over on the couch so that he can face her without having to sit up. “Is it really so bad that I want to learn something other than Judo or is it something else?”

Mikasa hesitates, and it’s obvious to Eren that she’s struggling a little bit to voice what’s on her mind. “It’s just – you know, she’s not really our friend,” she manages at last. “Annie, I mean. Just because she goes to our school, doesn’t mean we really know her.”

“You totally do know her, though,” says Eren, frowning. “She’s been at our school for as long as we have.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know _know_ her,” Mikasa replies with a small frown. “What makes you so sure that she’s... well... _decent_?”

Eren raises an eyebrow at his foster sister. “What makes you so sure that she’s not?”

Mikasa lets out a frustrated ‘ _hmph_ ’. “We just don’t know anything about her, okay? I just – ”

She fishes awkwardly for words, but Eren has known her long enough to understand; Mikasa’s had walls up since she came to live with him and his father, but it’s never been a bad thing – more often than not, it’s just because she’s a tad overprotective. She’s decidedly picky about her friends, that’s all – she and Annie are a lot alike that way and he imagines that they’d probably get along quite well.

Eren hums thoughtfully, rolling off the couch and heading into the kitchen to put the kettle on. “I think you guys should get to know each other,” he says, pulling a couple of mugs from the drawer.

Mikasa blinks at him. “I think not,” she deadpans.

“You should,” says Eren, shrugging. “She’s a good teacher and not as mean as everyone thinks – and that’s not just me. Armin’s had to partner her in chem a couple of times and he says so too.” He hands her a mug of tea and flops into the seat opposite her with his own.

“Armin thinks everyone’s nice,” she grumbles.

“It’s not like he’s wrong,” points out Eren. He sighs into his mug. “Trust me on this one, okay?”

She makes a face at him, but he gives her a look over his mug. “ _Mika,”_ he says seriously. It’s a name no one is _ever_ allowed to call her, and it’s a reminder to her that he is not just anyone. Mikasa has never really told him much about how life was before Grisha Jaeger took her in, but he doesn’t have to ask to know that she’s so defensive because of the past. She let him in though – he’s the only person she has ever allowed to use the name ‘Mika’ because he is the one person she’s come to trust completely, and he knows that. _She_ knows that he knows that, and Eren stares her down until she relents with a sigh.

 “Yeah. Okay,” she says at last. “But... be careful, okay? I don’t know what she’s teaching you but if you keep coming home like this, I’m allowed to worry.”

Eren shoots her a reassuring grin. “Don’t. I’ll be okay. Aren’t I always?”

“No.” Mikasa scoffs into the mug. “Thanks for the tea.”

x

**New Text Message**

From: Annie

To: Eren

No.

x

Eren doesn’t receive the text until he’s settled in home room the next morning and he scowls a little at the phone, tapping the text space to start on a reply when he hears a giggle next to his ear.

He frowns and glances to his right to find Mina leaning over his shoulder and reading over his messages. “What the fuck – _Mina!”_ he yelps, locking the phone and pulling it away defensively. “Can you _not_?”

 Mina chuckles and pulls up a chair. “So what, did you ask her out? Is that what happened?”

Eren gives her a look. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t play dumb,” she teases, grinning slyly at him. “You and Annie.”

“What – I – _No!”_ He looks at her like she’s gone crazy but it doesn’t stop his voice from cracking oddly at the “No”. He coughs. “I didn’t – _ahem_ – I just asked her to teach me a few moves,” he says with as much dignity as he can.

“So what’d she reject you for?”

“She didn’t reject me,” Eren says, voice bordering a little on defensive. “It’s not anything important and it’s none of your business. Why are you even here? You’re not in this home room class!”

Mina, apparently deaf to his protests, clucks her tongue and leans her elbows casually on his desk. “How do I put this?” she wonders aloud. “Annie is one of my best friends, and I really want her to be happy. Now, she won’t ever admit it but she’s secretly really pleased that someone else is taking an interest in her techniques – ”

“How the _fuck_ do you know that?”

She ignores him. “ – so if anyone’s going to work for her _romantically_ – ”

“ _Whoa,_ whoa, whoa, what the hell?” Eren holds up his hands and leans away from Mina a little. “You – _what?_ No, it’s not like that, okay? She won’t even accept my friend request – where the hell are you getting these ideas?”

Mina stifles a giggle behind her hands and grins. “Eren. Chill. I’m just saying that if you do want to ask her out, I’m totally behind it.”

Eren gapes at her. “I – _what?_ ”

She pats his shoulder supportively, winking as she gets up and practically skips towards the door. Eren is left at his desk slack-jawed and confused as to whether that _really_ just happened, and he’s still like that when Marco takes his usual seat to his left.

“What happened to you?” the other boy asks.

Eren turns his head slowly to look at him. “I don’t know?” he manages. “I think Mina just tried to convince me to ask Annie out?”

Marco raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you going to?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” snaps Eren, reaching for his phone again. “She hasn’t even accepted my friend request yet.” He unlocks the screen and returns to Annie’s last message and he doesn’t need to look to know that Marco’s watching him with a little concern. “What?”

“If you keep bugging her like that, she’s less likely to do it, you know.”

Eren bristles. Marco has a reputation of being everyone’s (mostly Jean’s) conscience because he seems to have what the average high school student lacks: common sense. He’s right, of course. People who bother Annie generally end up in a lot of pain, but in Eren’s mind, Annie has already put him through all of that—it’s only fair that he gets to bother her a little.

She walks through the door at the exact moment Eren hits send. When he looks up at last, Annie’s already glaring at him and a single word forms on her lips. “ _No._ ”

x

“I don’t get it.” Eren falls into step with Marco as they make their way to first period. “Why doesn’t she want to friend me?”

“Uh. There could be a number of reasons,” he starts, and Eren feels like Marco knows all of them but he’s still trying to be polite. “For one, you’re really annoying her about it – you can’t just _force_ someone to accept your friend request. For another, it’s not that big a deal – it’s a _friend request._ ”

“Exactly!” huffs Eren. “I don’t see why she’s being so stubborn about it.”

Marco scoffs and shakes his head. “That’s a third,” he mutters. “Look, Eren. Annie isn’t really the type of person you can annoy into being friends, so if you really want her to accept your request, _leave her alone and let her do it in her own time._ Give the girl some space.”

Eren gives him a petulant scowl. “What if she doesn’t, though?”

“Then that’s her call,” says Marco wisely. He glances at his phone for the time and gives Eren an apologetic grin. “I have to get to gym. _Don’t_ bother her anymore than you already have. Mikasa will kill me if she beats you up more than she has to.”

“Wait, what? What does Mikasa have to do with this?” Eren calls after him, but Marco’s already jogging down the hall towards the gymnasium.

x

Marco is one of three people in his grade who regularly offers their advice: Armin is the second, and Bertholdt Fubar is the third. Eren generally doesn’t listen to advice given to him–not even from Armin, who’s been his best friend since middle school—but he thinks, maybe, Marco might be right this time. So, he spends the whole day _not_ tailing Annie around and _not_ blowing up her phone with his pleas to accept his friend request, so he’s genuinely surprised when it’s she who approaches him after school.

“You left this at dojo yesterday.” She fishes the belt he uses to tie his gi from her bag.

Eren blinks at her. “Oh. Thanks. Uh – sorry about the spam.”

Annie raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you actually?”

“Well, yeah, I guess.” He shuffles his feet awkwardly and pockets the belt. “Marco said that annoying you into it probably isn’t the best idea.”

“He might be onto something there,” deadpans Annie.

Eren pouts. “Annie, come on. I’m trying to be mature.”

She snorts. “Of course you are,” she says, and Eren pouts a little harder when he realizes that she’s making fun of him. He’s about to protest when she says, “Come in after the junior classes on Saturday.”

He blinks at her again, taking a second to process the offer before his face splits into a wide grin. “Really? Uh. Okay! Does that mean you’ll— ”

 “ _No.”_ She smirks. “You’re gonna have to work a little harder than that, Jaeger.” She waves a little to someone behind him, and Eren turns to see Reiner and Bertholdt heading in their direction. “You also need to learn how to speak to girls.”

“I – _what_?” It’s stupid, he knows, but he’s actually kind of insulted at the accusation. “I’m talking to you aren’t I?”

She stifles a second snort and turns to join the newcomers. “Eleven on Saturday. Don’t be late.”

Eren sputters, and it’s not until she and the others have walked out of the main gate that he manages to regain control of his mouth.

“I can too speak to girls!”

x

**Facebook Messenger**

**Armin:  
** Do I even want to know why you were yelling at the main gate?  
 **Eren:**  
No.  
 _Seen15:34._

 

 


	5. V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie scoffs and she’s about to say no, but she takes one look at him with his stupid grin and his wide green eyes, and finds that her resolve just can’t handle is idiocy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) It is Supanova day tomorrow, which is basically Australian Comic Con with less guests, and I promised tumblr user lankyvibe that I'd get this up in the "next couple of days" which means I won't have time to do it tomorrow if Bay beta's this tonight. So Bay, if you're reading this, I didn't forget. Also, I'm wondering how obvious the ereannie can get without you hating me for making you beta a fic about a ship you don't ship.
> 
> 2) Thank you to everyone who left their feedback - I just wanted to make sure that people were actually reading and enjoying this. Please do keep leaving feedback if you can; it's really hard to tell that you like this if you guys don't let me know.

**V.**

**Facebook Messenger**

**Mina:**  
Goddammit Annie, accept his friend request  
Hey  
Annie  
AnnieAnnieAnnie  
Are you ignoring my messages?  
I am so insulted!  
DON’T IGNORE ME  
I KNOW YOU’VE READ THESE MESSAGES, IT TELLS ME WHEN YOU SEE THEM  
 _Sent 14.45_

x

Mina Carolina has a reputation of being one of the nicest girls in their grade (second only to Krista Lenz, which is saying a lot), but she is also notorious for being one of the nosiest and Annie stares at the screen of her phone and fights the urge to throw it across the cafe. Reiner will never forgive her if she gets him fired because she broke their coffee machine or something, so instead, she pockets it  and glares holes into the table.

“You okay, Annie?”

She looks up in time to see Bertholdt taking a seat across from her with two paper cups. He looks a little concerned as he hands over her mocha and Annie sighs and offers him a nod of thanks.

“It’s nothing,” she grumbles.

Bertholdt raises an eyebrow at her. “Doesn’t sound like nothing,” he notes mildly.

“Well, it is,” she snaps, a little harsher than she means to. “Sorry. I forget how nosy people can be, that’s all.”

“Ah,” says Bertholdt. He turns his eyes to the coffee cup and says nothing else.

Annie brings her own to her lips and, even from here, she can feel Reiner’s eyes boring into her back, wordlessly demanding that she explain the situation with Eren to Bert. He’s got a point, she supposes. The three of them have been thick as thieves since Annie’s second year at Septa Maria College. They are both like brothers to her, and it’s not exactly fair for her to confide in Reiner but not in Bert.

“It’s not what everyone thinks it is,” she says at last.

Bert glances up at her, grey eyes momentarily meeting blue, before they turn back to his coffee. “What is it, then?” he asks quietly.

Annie fights the urge to cringe because she looks at his face now and realizes that Reiner is right: Bert has already come to his own conclusion regarding her relationship (or lack thereof) with Eren, and she may not feel the same way towards him, but he is still her friend and she dislikes the disappointment in his eyes _very_ much. “He wanted to learn some of my techniques,” she explains. “That’s all.”

He looks up again. “You’re not...? He didn’t--?”

“No,” says Annie firmly, and she snorts into her coffee as she brings it to her lips again. “He’s a talented kid, I’ll give him that, but he’s an idiot, and just – _no._ ”

Bertholdt hums thoughtfully, but he offers her a small smile. “Okay,” he says. “But you know, it was kinda weird that you agreed to teach him.”

“So I’ve been told,” she mutters.

They lapse into a silence that’s both comfortable and awkward; Bertholdt has grown accustomed to the fact that Annie’s not very much of a conversationalist, even with her closest friends, but Annie can feel his question in the air; can see it in the way tugs nervously at the serviette that came with his coffee. She’s not sure exactly when he’d started to look at her as more than a friend, but she can say that it’s not the same for her. Bert just... isn’t her type, she guesses, and the idea that things could change because she can’t return his feelings irks ( _scares_ ) her a lot.

Her fingers tense around her cup as she waits, but the question never comes.

“Why _did_ you agree to teach him?” he asks instead.

She blinks. “He wouldn’t leave me alone,” she tells him. “You were there when he ambushed me at lunch – he followed me around afterwards as well.”

Bert studies her carefully, eyes searching hers as if there’s something else she’s not saying. Annie heaves a frustrated sigh.

“Why is it such a big deal to everyone?” she snaps.

“Uh – ” Bert holds up his hands. “It’s not, it was just –”

Annie bristles. “Yeah? It’s literally yesterday’s news.If it’s not such a big deal, tell me this: w _hy do people keep asking_?” She glares at him, demanding an answer, but he relents and turns his eyes back to his coffee.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “On behalf of everyone who’s been bugging you about it – me, Reiner, Mina – it’s your business. We’re your friends, and shouldn’t be trying to pry details out of you if you don’t want to give them.”

She huffs. “It’s fine,” she grumbles, snatching her bag up from under the table and getting to her feet. “I should go. I have errands to run.”

“Annie, wait – ”

She’s out the cafe door before Bert can finish the sentence.

x

It’s a lie.

She doesn’t have errands run. She doesn’t actually have much to do today; her latest assignments are done, and her father will be home early enough to take care of dinner for once so she doesn’t even have that to worry about. The truth is that she’s just done with being asked about Eren over and over and over again; her life does not revolve around the fact that she agreed to teach him her techniques, and neither should all her conversations.

She’s on the bus home now, and she’s spent most of the journey staring out the window with her earphones plugged in and the volume on her iPod turned most of the way up. It’s been a relatively long day, and the conversation with Bertholdt didn’t help much. She’s still trying to cool off when someone taps her on the shoulder.

“Annie?”

She tears her eyes from the window and tugs the left earphone from her ear. “Armin,” she greets. Her eyes narrow. “If you ask me about Eren, I swear to God – ”

The blonde boy blinks and holds up his hands. “No – no, I was just wondering if I could take a seat. The bus is pretty crowded today.”

“Ah.” Annie nods at him and turns back to the window. “Go ahead, I guess.”

He does, offering her a grateful smile. “I don’t see you on this bus often,” he comments mildly.

“I don’t usually head home ‘til later,” she deadpans.

“That would explain that.”

The bus lurches into motion and they lapse into silence. Annie turns her eyes back to the window, plugging the left earphone back into her ear and she gets maybe halfway through a song when Armin taps at her shoulder again.

“ _What?”_ she demands, hitting the pause button and turning to look  at him.

“Uh. First,” he starts cautiously, “I promise I’m not _asking_ about Eren – I already know what’s going on anyway, so please don’t get anymore annoyed than you already are. I swear this –”

“Get to the point,” she snaps, and Armin gulps.

He takes a breath. “Look. I’ve known Eren since, like, middle school, and you can tell how much he likes something by the amount he talks about it per day. You’ve come up _pretty_ often this week, so yeah, it’s obvious that he admires you a lot.” Armin pauses, looking as if he’s wondering how to continue. “Come and sit with us sometime. He won’t stop bragging about you until you do.”

There’s an odd sensation in Annie’s face; it’s a sort of unwelcome warmth, and almost too late, she realises she’s blushing at the idea that Eren _brags_ about her. She turns away hoping Armin hasn’t noticed. “I’ll pass,” she deadpans.

Armin shrugs. “You should consider it at least.” He snorts a little. “You’re nicer than you let on, and surely you won’t let us suffer at his hands.” He pushes the stop button and gets up. “This is my stop.”

“Good,” mutters Annie under her breath, but Armin chuckles.

“I’ll be honest,” he says. “We though it was pretty weird when he started following you around, but his judgement is generally pretty good, so if he says you’re cool, I’m inclined to agree. Plus there was that time you basically saved my chem experiment, so I know first hand that you’re actually a nice person.” He grins as the bus comes to a stop. “See you on Monday, Annie.”

Annie stares after him, wondering if everyone who hangs around Eren is a certain type of crazy.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Bertholdt

To: Annie

I’m really sorry about yesterday. Let me make it up to you. You free after judo?

-

**New Text Message**

From: Annie

To: Bertholdt

Not your fault. Was cranky to begin with. And no, sorry. I have prior commitments.

x

The kids in Hannes’ junior classes are among the worst little brats Annie has ever met. There are about forty of them all together, each about seven or eight years old, and at least three-quarters of them are on perpetual sugar highs. Classes don’t end soon enough for her, and the cherry on top of today’s _spectacular_ class is when she overhears a little boy talking to his mother on their way out of the building.

“Mom, she’s a girl, there’s no way she’s gonna be as good as Hannes-sensei.”

_Are you fucking kidding me? You are too fucking young to be that sexist already._

She rounds on the little kid, fists clenching at her sides, but his mother ushers him away quickly, mouthing a quick apology at her.

Annie scowls, and she’s about to turn around to head back inside when she spots Eren hurrying up the steps.

“Don’t look so peeved, Annie, you know that’s not true,” he says with a cheeky grin.

She glares at him.

“What? It’s a compliment.”

Annie rolls her eyes and makes her way to the free training room at the end of the hall. “Hurry up and get dressed.”

He chuckles and jogs to catch up with her. “Armin told me he saw you on the bus yesterday,” he says.

“So he did,” she says shortly. “What of it?”

Eren shrugs. “Nothing, he just said you guys chatted for a bit before he got off.”

“And?”

Eren shrugs again. “That’s it,” he says as they come to a stop outside the spare training room. “He just kind of mentioned it in passing. Give me a minute, I’ll just get dressed.” He scurries off to the changing rooms, and Annie shakes her head and slides open the door.

Eren and his friends have always been rather open with each other about their mundane everyday activities, and sometimes Annie wonders if they have any sense of privacy at all. Evidently, they do, because as far as she can tell, Armin didn’t mention the exact topic of their conversation, nor, thankfully, her reaction to parts of it (if he noticed at all). She’s actually relatively impressed with this, and she mulls Armin’s offer over in her mind.

Reiner and Bert and Mina are her best friends in the way that they have always respected her privacy and her need to be alone every now and then, but lately, their nosiness has been a little taxing. Perhaps she just needs a break from them and perhaps Armin’s offer isn’t as bad as it sounds. Maybe she should –

“Okay! Let’s get started!”

Annie shakes herself from her thoughts as Eren lets himself into the practise room with a grin. The thought is left unfinished in her head.

x

The have a break after a couple of hours, and Eren excuses himself and returns a couple of minutes later with a Tupperware container filled with what looks like the contents of half a packet of cookies. “Don’t tell Mikasa,” he says, removing the lid and offering it to her. “I have to buy more on the way home anyway, so hopefully she won’t notice I stole what was left in the jar.”

Annie raises a brow at him.

He makes a face. “Come on, Annie, I risked a lot so we’d have something to snack on, don’t let that be for nothing.”

“I can’t take your sister’s cookies,” she says pointedly, and Eren chuckles.

“They’re technically mine – I bought them,” he says, shaking the container insistently. “Have one.”

Annie sighs. She takes the topmost cookie from the container and moves to the corner of the room to sit against the wall. “You’re ridiculous,” she says, nibbling at it as Eren follows and drops into the spot next to her. “Armin said you’ve been bragging.”

“About what?”

Annie pauses. “Me,” she says quietly, making a point of not looking him in the eye.

Eren’s chuckle is muffled by the cookie in his mouth. “Well, yeah,” he says, swallowing hugely. “Jean’s, like, three hundred percent done with listening to me talk about the stuff you teach me but hey, it’s his loss. It’s a really cool technique and you’re kind of awesome at it – what’s not to brag about?”

“Hm.” It takes a lot of self control to keep the blush from rising to her cheeks, but she will admit to herself that it’s actually kind of nice that Eren has so much respect and appreciation for the things she knows. “Sucking up won’t get you out of any drills, you know that, right?”

He laughs. “Yeah. I know. So, hey, are you going to accept my friend request yet?”

Annie scoffs and she’s about to say no, but she takes one look at him with his stupid grin and his wide green eyes, and finds that her resolve just can’t handle is idiocy. She sighs. “I’m going to get so much shit for this,” she grumbles, getting up and heading for the changing rooms.

She can hear his shout of triumph even from down the hall.

x

 **Annie Leonhardt** accepted your friend request.   
Write on Annie’s timeline.  
 _Just now_


	6. VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just so typical that the first girl Eren shows any real interest in is one who can beat him to pulp on a regular basis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Shout out to Bay, and to everyone who left their feedback.
> 
> 2) I don't know if I'm entirely happy with this chapter, but I think it's just because it's the first time I've written something in Armin's point of view. Here's hoping he's still in character. 
> 
> 3) They're playing the multiplayer on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

**VI.**

**Facebook Messenger**

**Eren:  
** Oi, come over, we haven’t had a decent game day in two weeks  
 **Armin:**  
What, now? It’s 7 AM  
 **Eren:  
** Idk, turn up whenever  
 **Armin:**  
...  
Give me a couple of hours  
 _Seen 07.30_

x

“So she finally accepted your friend request, huh?”

Armin throws his best friend a side long glance. It’s Sunday morning, and he’s chilling out at Eren and Mikasa’s place because it’s been a while since they’ve all been free and a game of Call of Duty is long overdue. Mikasa is sitting in the arm chair in the corner of the living room with her laptop balanced carefully on the arm rest, and she glances up at them briefly before she turns her eyes back to the screen.

Eren nods, tongue between his teeth as his character ducks behind a broken-down car to avoid being shot. “Yep,” he says, peering over the hood. “She taught me this awesome throw yesterday – maybe I should show --”

“You’re not throwing anyone, Eren,” interrupts Mikasa sternly. “Dad already spoke to you about that, remember?”

“I wasn’t actually going to.” Eren tears his eyes away from the TV to pout at her. “I was gonna suggest coming to the dojo sometime to watch. Not right away, obviously – I need to learn enough to stand a chance first.”

“I’ll pass,” deadpans Mikasa.

Eren huffs and turns his attention back to the game only to find his character lying in a pool of blood behind the broken down car. “What the _shit?!”_ He rounds on Armin.

He shrugs. “Whoops.”

 “That wasn’t fair!”

Armin gives his friend a look. “Yeah, it was – we’re in a _war zone_ , and if you’re not gonna pay attention, be prepared to get hit.”

Eren scowls at his friend and taps aggressively at the pause button. “Shut up,” he snaps before he turns back to Mikasa. “I really think you and Annie should get to know each other.”

 “Eren’s right,” Armin says, setting the controller down and moving onto the couch. “She’s a little stand-offish, but I think she just needs to get used to having new people around. I really think you guys would get along.”

Mikasa scrunches her nose, looking reluctant. Armin can sort of understand; after she started living with Eren, it took her the better part of a year to even start liking him. He likes to think he’s a relatively likable guy, but he’ll admit that he was a little intimidated and mildly insulted that she disliked him so much at first. The three of them are best friends now, and he imagines Mikasa might appreciate having a female friend who isn’t as talkative as Sasha.

“Seriously,” Eren says, leaning back on his arms. “At least come with me some time.”

“I’ll think about it,” says Mikasa, turning back to her laptop.

Eren shrugs and glances at Armin. “Do you think she’d come sit with us at lunch if I asked her?”

“I already did,” Armin tells him.

“Wait, what?”

Armin offers him a cross between a smirk and a knowing sort of smile. He doesn’t really know who Eren thinks he’s kidding, but barring Mikasa, there’s no one who knows him better. He’s relatively sure Mikasa has an idea of what’s going on in Eren’s head but she’s too busy being wary of Annie to realize it. Armin, though, he knows _exactly_ what’s going on.

He nods. “Yeah, when I saw her on the bus the other day.” He shrugs. “She said no, but I wouldn’t call that a solid answer just yet. Give her some time to really consider it.”

Eren sits up a little straighter, eyes wide and hopeful. “You really think she will?”

“Yep,” says Armin firmly, reaching for the controller again. “Trust me. She will.”

x

Armin has never been one to gossip or eavesdrop on other people, but the reason he’s so perceptive and so aware of who likes who and what’s going on where is because he’s _really_ good at getting a read on people. Eren, he supposes, doesn’t count: Eren is rash and ridiculous and an open book to anyone who has known him longer than six months and, well, Armin has known him for far longer than that. This is why he’s so confident in saying this: Eren Jaeger is in the process of developing a crush on Annie Leonhardt.

Eren. _Crushing_ on _Annie._

It seemed so bizarre at first, but given the number of times he brought her up in one week, let alone one day, how could it be anything else? It makes sense the more he thinks about it. Of course it would be Annie – she is the only one barring Mikasa who can beat him to a pulp on a regular basis and Eren has never been good at holding back. Armin supposes that that’s the deal breaker. Annie will let him give it his all – in fact, from what he’s heard, she is willing push him to his limits and beyond if he is willing to let her. And he does. Of course he does. He wants to learn more than anything else; he _wants_ to be _challenged_ , and Annie is not afraid to give him that.

He’d sort of hedged at the subject when he caught Annie on the way home the other day, mostly because he was curious if she knew. Evidently, no, and Armin thinks he got far more than he bargained for when he caught the dusting of red on her cheeks.

Well.

He can’t say he saw that one coming.

x

On Monday afternoon, Armin helps himself to the cafeteria food, as always, and he’s just about to make his way to their usual table when he spots Annie a little way down the line. He pauses and ushers Connie and Sasha ahead of him by pretending he’s deciding what to drink.

When Annie gets to him, she’s already glaring. “Are you going to pick a drink or what?”

“Annie!” he says, as if he’s just spotted her. “Fancy seeing you here! What a coincidence!”

She gives him a look. “What do you want?” she deadpans. Her gaze is icy, and Armin remembers too late that she doesn’t tolerate bullshit.

He forces himself to stand his ground. “Uh – sorry – um. Did you think about maybe coming to si—”

“No,” she says coldly, picking at a bottle of orange juice. “I’d prefer to sit alone.”

Armin pauses because he catches the slight scowl on her features and the extra bite in her tone before she can hide it. “Is... everything okay?” he asks hesitantly.

“It’s none of your business,” she snaps, and Armin shrinks back a little but notes to himself that the answer isn’t some variant of ‘yes’.

“You don’t have to say if you don’t want to,” he says hastily. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like I was prying. Just – you know, if you feel like some company, you’re welcome to join us.”

“ _What did I just say_?”

Armin does his best not to flinch, and he’s reminded how really fucking _terrifying_ Annie can be when she wants to be. He mutters an awkward sort of apology and sort of scurries off, watching out of the corner of his eye as she stalks out of the main cafeteria and towards an empty bench in the courtyard.

He sighs, making his way across the hall to their usual table. Mikasa has a meeting with the track team and may not be back in time for lunch at all today, so it’s just Eren for now. He’s hunched over with his phone when Armin arrives, only looking up as his friend takes a seat.

Eren raises an eyebrow at him. “What happened to you?”

Armin cringes and pokes at his pasta. “I forgot how scary Annie can be,” he says weakly, but he swallows and glances at Eren. “I think something upset her, though. She’s crankier than normal.”

Eren blinks. “How do you know?”

“I just spoke to her,” he explains. “I kinda just asked if she’d reconsidered coming to sit with us. She said no, but she’s out in the courtyard instead of with Reiner and Bertholdt or Mina, which is a little weird.”

“Not really,” points out Eren. “She likes her time alone, remember?”

Armin shakes his head. “She didn’t even acknowledge them. They’re like her best friends.”

Eren hums thoughtfully. “Do you think she’d kill me if I tried to talk to her?”

“I dunno.” Armin shrugs. “You know her better than I do. She might not?”

Eren considers it, and Armin watches as his friend assesses the risks and outcomes in his head. He can practically see the gears turning in his temples as he waits for his decision, which is a little weird, to be honest; Eren doesn’t usually spend this much time considering his choices, but Armin quietly notes the way his fingers tap nervously on the surface of the table and the way he keeps peering at the lock screen of his phone.

At last, Eren clears his throat and sits up a little straighter. “Is it cool if I ditch you for, like, ten minutes?”

“Go ahead,” says Armin. “Try not to get beat up, okay?”

“I don’t think she’ll beat me up.” Eren looks mildly offended. “We’re friends now.”

Armin scoffs. “I don’t think that’ll stop her from beating you up.”

x

He’s gone an entire five minutes before Jean turns up. “Where is everyone?” he asks, slipping into the seat across from Armin.

“Mikasa’s at a meeting,” Armin explains, swallowing a forkful of pasta. “Marco’s usually with you, so I dunno where he is, but Eren’s in the courtyard talking to Annie.”

Jean snorts into his soda and rolls his eyes. “God, he’s like obsessed,” he groans. “All week long, it’s been ‘ _Annie this’_ and ‘ _Annie that_ ’ and ‘ _Annie’s so cool even though she kicks my ass three times a week_ ’.” He snorts. “If I didn’t know better, I‘d say Eren had a _massive_ crush on that girl.”

Armin blinks at him, and he turns back to his pasta without saying a word.

 “ _No._ ” Jean’s jaw drops, and he slams his hands against the table as if this is the biggest breakthrough since Einstein theorized relativity. “You’re _kidding_ me!”

“I didn’t say anything,” says Armin, pointedly refusing to look Jean in the eye. He is good at reading people, yes, and sometimes, he’s even pretty good at semi-manipulating them too, but lying through his teeth is not one of his strong points.

“Who else knows?” demands Jean. “Oh my God, this is fucking _huge._ ”

Armin frowns at him. “Jean, I swear, if you spread this around, I will make it my personal goal to make sure Mikasa never agrees to go out with you,” he threatens. “This is Eren’s business. He doesn’t even realize he’s got a crush on her yet. If you ruin this –”

“Dude, chill.” Jean huffs. “I won’t tell anyone, but you gotta admit, this is a big deal.”

“It will be for Eren when he figures it out,” he snaps.

“Does she like him back?”

“You’re worse than half the girls in our grade,” Armin groans. “It’s none of your business.”

“Our little Eren’s growing up!” Jean places a hand over his heart and sobs mock-proudly.

“Well, I guess that means you’ll never get a date with Mikasa!” says Armin loudly. People from the surrounding tables are starting to stare at them now, and he throws the taller boy a nasty glare. “ _Don’t_ screw this up for them,” he hisses. “I mean it, Jean.”

Jean scoffs. “Come on, Armin, I’m not that much of a dick.”

“Really?” he deadpans. “I feel like there’s a good reason I don’t believe you.”

“No, seriously,” says Jean. He drops the act and offers him a reassuring grin. “I’m happy for him. Sort of. Don’t tell anyone I said that. My point is good for him. Just as long as he doesn’t drag her over here everyday because, _God,_ she scares me.”

Their phones buzz at the exact moment Jean finishes his sentence, and Armin watches as he reads over the notification.

“Oh,” he says. “Well then.”

 

x

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Marco

Hey, I convinced Annie to come and sit with us tomorrow, that’s okay right?

x


	7. VII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She genuinely doesn’t know what’s going on; only that her control of herself is slipping because Eren Jaeger is a manipulative little bastard who’s figured out how she ticks and probably doesn’t even know it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Shout out to Bay, who is, apparently, still not sick of me, and also to everyone who left their feedback, particularly Ao3 user Sarah2207 and FFn user lotbe - everyone's been really encouraging about this so far but your guys comments made my day.
> 
> 2) I'm on holiday now, so hopefully I should be more consistent with updates.

**VII**

**New Text Message**

From: Mikasa

To: Eren

You have a WHAT???

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Mikasa

I legit have no idea what you’re talking about rn

x

When Eren had come to sit with her at lunch today, he’d had a stupidly stubborn determination in his eyes, and the second he dropped his bag by the seat, Annie knew what this was going to be about. She’d literally just spent most of her Sunday fending off Mina, Reiner and Bertholdt, and she was not about to give them any more ammunition related to the whole Eren thing. So, she’d steeled herself and had been so ready to reject every offer or deal Eren would make her, until he sat down and greeted her with his most ridiculous grin.

She’d tried. Oh, how she’d tried to just say ‘ _no’_ , but somehow, in the short time she’d been teaching him Muay Thai, he had learned how to manipulate her with nothing more than eager grins and bright green eyes.

God. Damn it.

She’s sitting with him now in study hall, peering over his shoulder as he messages his sister under the desk while Miss Ral is distracted on the other side of the room.

Eren glances at her curiously when she huffs. “Mikasa’s a little weird sometimes,” he explains quietly. “But you guys might be really good friends if you got to know each other.”

Annie purses her lips. Eren doesn’t know because he’s never been in the same P.E. class, but she and Mikasa have always had a sort of silent rivalry; one in which they are mostly equally matched, but they try more than they should to outperform the other just because they can. It’s not exactly the healthiest base to build a friendship on, and to be honest, Annie’s not sure she’s really comfortable with extending her circle of likable people to a person she mildly dislikes.

Besides, she’s ninety percent sure Mikasa already resents her for a) spending so much time with her brother, which in turn has lead to b) the fact that she has been her brother’s most-brought-up topic for a week.

“I wouldn’t be too invested in that idea,” she says after a moment, and Eren tilts his head at her with a slight frown wrinkling his brow.

“Why not?”

Annie shrugs. “We’re not very fond of each other,” she says shortly.

“Well, yeah,” says Eren, blinking. “That’s why you get to know each other.”

“It’s a bad idea, Eren,” she snaps. There’s a “ _shush!”_ from the other side of the room, and Annie glances up in time to catch Miss Ral watching them disapprovingly. She makes a face and mouths a sorry before she turns to glare at the idiot in the seat next to her. “Why did I even agree to sit with you tomorrow? It’s the worst frickin’ –”

“Annie, come on.” He offers her a reassuring grin. “It’ll be fine. You trust me, right?”

She scoffs. “No.”

Eren gives her a look. “Please?

She glances at him, and too late, she realizes that he’s doing the thing again – the thing where he looks at her, eyes wide and hopeful and impossibly green. She kind of wants to punch him in the face for it because she _should_ be able to refuse him but she _can’t,_ and, just – “ _Fine_ ,” she grumbles through clenched teeth. She doesn’t look at him because she knows he’s grinning, and if he’s got that look on his face again, she might just flip him over the table.

x

She spends the rest of the day pointedly avoiding Mina, Reiner and Bertholdt because she’s so _done_ with their shit and she doesn’t want to deal with any more pointless interrogations. Yes, she’d spent Saturday afternoon at the dojo with Eren, and yes, she refused Bertholdt’s offer to hang out because of that: _so what?_ It was an appointment she’d made prior to his offer, and it pisses her off _so much_ that they just refuse to leave it alone.

Well fine, she’d thought. If they want to be ridiculous, she won’t stop them, but she won’t indulge them either. She’s already explained herself to them once and that should be enough, but hey, if they want to keep harassing her about it, then the fastest way to deal with it until they grow up is to ditch them all together.

She convinces herself that this is part of the reason she agreed to Eren’s request: his friends already know what’s going on, and, as far as she’s aware, Jean and Marco and Armin are still too afraid of her to even go there. She and Mikasa may dislike each other, but the other girl is quiet and reserved and probably doesn’t care enough to bother so at least Annie will have some semblance of peace.

The rest of the day is pretty uneventful (ignoring the fact that her phone has been buzzing with Mina’s spam for most of it), and it’s more of the same the next morning, and by the time lunch rolls around, she heads for the cafeteria hoping (foolishly) that maybe Eren has forgotten about it. She’s on her way out of the room when his voice calls out to her from behind.

“Annie!”

She sighs. He’d been so eager – of course he wasn’t going to forget. He jogs towards her, his eyes as wide and excitable as ever.

“Hello, Eren,” she deadpans.

“You said you’d sit with us today, remember?” He grins and jerks his head in the direction of his usual table. “Come on.”

“I changed my mind,” she says quickly. “I think I’ll eat outside today.”

Eren frowns at her. “You promised.”

“I didn’t,” she protests, and it’s true, because she distinctly remembers all their conversations and the words ‘I promise’ have never been uttered by her.

He makes a face. “You can’t cop out on me now. You said you would.”

 _Just say no,_ she tells herself. _It’s easy, just reject his stupid offer and be done with it._

“Just this once, got it?” she blurts, and inwardly, she curses herself for being so weak-willed. Damn her. Damn her mouth.

Then his grin returns, and he beckons for her to follow, and she changes her mind.

Actually, no.

Damn _him._

x

She joins them at their table where she’s greeted with weak smiles and silence (mostly silence), until Eren settles in the seat next to her. He sandwiches her between himself and Armin, takes one look around the table, and then starts talking like there’s nothing wrong.

Armin offers her a sort of reassuring grin and starts talking too. They’re discussing having a games day of some sort – probably on some video game that’s come out recently. Jean and Marco sit across from her, and after a second, they join the conversation too. That leaves Mikasa who is sitting on the edge of the seat on the other side of the table, steely eyes locked on Annie.

Annie glares back. It’s a cold sort of staring contest, but no one else seems to notice the tension rising between them. She doesn’t break it until Eren prods lightly at her shoulder and she turns her glare to him instead.

“What do you think, do you wanna come?”

Annie frowns. “To what?”

“Games day,” Eren explains. “Next Sunday at my place.”

“I’ll pass.”

“You should think about it,” Eren says. He seems oblivious to Mikasa, whose glare becomes even colder. “It’ll be fun.”

“That’s what you always say,” deadpans Annie.

Eren shrugs. “It’s true most of the time – you just have to give it some time. Anyway, are you heading to the dojo straight after school today?”

She nods shortly and turns back to her pasta.

“Can I walk with you?”

“You’re pretty adamant at invading my personal space, aren’t you?” Annie gives him a look.

Eren blinks at her. “Is that a no?”

There’s a sigh from the other side of the table and they turn in time to see Mikasa shove her tray away and get up. “ _Eren_ ,” she says sternly. She jerks her head towards the corridor and stalks off without another word.

Eren seems to understand. “One second,” he says, and he gets up too to scurry after his sister.

“Don’t mind her.”

Annie glances at Armin, who shrugs and swallows a mouthful of salad.

“She just takes a little while to get used to new people,” he tells her. “She’s actually really nice, and if you stick around, you might find you guys like each other.”

“I somehow doubt that.” Annie scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Can I go now?”

“Uh.” Armin hesitates. “You can, if you really want to,” he says, “but Eren might be a little disappointed. Besides, we like having you here, right guys?” He eyes Jean and Marco, and they sort of grin awkwardly at her before they answer.

“Sure!”

“Yeah, you seem pretty cool.”

They’re lying, obviously; Armin seems genuine enough, if not a little nervous, but Annie doesn’t need to be a genius to see right through Jean and Marco. “Whatever,” she grumbles, and she picks up her tray and opens her mouth to excuse herself when Eren returns.

“I dunno what’s up with her but – hey, where’re you going?”

 “Outside.” Annie clucks her tongue irritably. “I’ll see you later.”

“It’s not because of Mikasa, is it?” he calls after her.

Annie doesn’t answer.

x

It’s only sort of because of Mikasa – they’ve always been rivals so Annie hadn’t really expect anything less. Honestly, she kind of relates to the other girl in that a lot of the reason she just left was because it takes her a while to get used to people too. A lot of people seem to mistake that for being bitch, which, okay, fine, is fair because she _is_ a bitch sometimes, but she is by no means unreasonable.

Armin, she supposes, is okay because they have classes together and she’s had to be his lab partner more than a couple of times already. He’s a smart kid, and she respects him for that.

She doesn’t know a lot about Jean and Marco, and, quite frankly, she’s okay with that because Jean seems like a dick who’s only not because Marco is around to stop him.

Eren is an idiot, but she tolerates him now because she’s grown so used to him. He tries hard, and he’s eager to learn, and he appreciates her skills more than most people, so what can she say? She’s warmed up to him a lot. What bothers her now is the fact that she can’t seem to control her mouth around him anymore. It pisses her off a lot, actually, because it’s not just her mouth – her face becomes flushed and feverish at his compliments and her heart thumps faster in her chest than it should. She genuinely doesn’t know what’s going on; only that her control of herself is slipping because Eren Jaeger is a manipulative little bastard who’s figured out how she ticks and probably doesn’t even know it.

What a _dick_.

He chases her up after school while she’s grabbing some things from her locker.

“What’s going on?” he asks, frowning. “Is everything okay?”

Annie glares at him from the corner “Peachy,” she grumbles. “If you ask me to join you tomorrow, I swear –”

Eren holds up his hands. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he says quickly. “I just thought you might enjoy some different company, but I should have known better than to force you into sitting with us when you weren’t ready for it.”

Annie pauses and studies him carefully. “You spoke to Armin,” she says.

“Too mature to come from me directly, huh?” Eren rubs at the back of his head and gives her an awkward chuckle. “We’ve got a little time before Judo starts – can I make it up to you by getting you some coffee or something? There’s this place on the way –”

Annie cuts him off quickly. “No. It’s fine. We should head off.”

Eren raises an eyebrow at her. “Oh, we _are_ walking together, are we?”

“Well, there’s no real point in ditching you now,” she sasses, shutting the locker.

He grins. “Will you consider coming on Sunday?”

There’s a pause, and Annie hides an exasperated smirk. “Don’t push it.”


	8. VIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie snorts. “Don’t freak out,” she says, smirking. “It’s just a friendly spar, right, Ackerman?”
> 
> “Mikasa,” Mikasa corrects, and she smirks too.
> 
> Too late, Eren wonders if this really was a good idea or if he’s just made a terrible mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Shout out to Bay for being amazing as usual, and to everyone nice enough to leave feedback. You guys have all been so wonderful and encouraging, and it's just awesome to know you guys are enjoying this so far.
> 
> 2) Shameless self advertising time: I am jellyjay on tumblr. *wink wink nudge nudge*

**VIII**

**New Text Message**

From: Mikasa

To: Eren

Can we please talk about the whole Annie thing properly? You’ve been avoiding it since yesterday afternoon.

x

The time stamp on the notification says that he received the message three hours ago, but it’s not until Eren’s on his way home that he actually reads it. He scowls as he pockets the phone, aiming a frustrated kick at a pebble on the sidewalk because he could have sworn they’d already discussed this and that Mikasa had agreed to trust him on this one and just –

He huffs. It’s Mikasa, he reminds himself. She’s just overprotective, that’s all, and if she’s still up, then fine, they’ll talk. He just has to be patient with her because he really wants this to work: he wants Annie to sort of semi-join them and he wants Mikasa to realize that she doesn’t have to have walls up for everyone.

He heaves a tired sigh. He’s home a little later than he would be normally today because he’d waited with Annie at the bus stop nearest the dojo to make sure she’d be okay on the way home. She’d actually scolded him a little for it, and he supposes she’s right. Annie is more than capable of kicking anyone’s ass no matter how much bigger they are than her, but he did it anyway because he enjoys her company more than he cares to admit. He gets home at around nine o’clock and finds Mikasa sitting quietly on the couch with her jar of cookies on one side and a pile of her notes from school on the other.

“Hey,” she greets. “Can we talk?”

Eren flops onto the other couch, and he swears to himself in his mind that he’s going to be mature about this because Mikasa deserves more than his impatience, but the first words that force themselves out his mouth are: “What’s there to talk about?”

She frowns at him. “Eren. I’m just... concerned.”

“Are you sure you’re concerned for me?” he blurts, and he winces because it comes out much harsher than he intends it.

Mikasa pauses, looking insulted. “Why are you mad?”

“I’m not mad,” says Eren, and he takes a breath to make sure he stays that way. “I’m just frustrated. We’ve discussed this already and you agreed to trust me on this one.”

“It’s not you that I don’t trust,” says Mikasa quietly. “You know I trust you, and your judgement, but...”

“But what?” He turns his head to frown at her. “Is your rivalry with Annie really that important?”

There’s another pause, and Mikasa stares down at her feet, cheeks red with shame. “Sorry,” she mumbles. “It’s just... hard.”

Eren studies her carefully, watching as her fingers clench into fists because she’s embarrassed of her behaviour. He relents. “I didn’t mean to snap at you,” he says quietly. “But I really, _really_ think you guys could get along great. Please at least try to get to know each other?”

“She, like, hates me, though,” says Mikasa childishly.

“No, she doesn’t,” snorts Eren. “You have to be a real asshole for her to dislike you. She’s just quiet and prefers to keep to herself. Like you.”

“Hm.” She glances at him and offers an apologetic smile. “Sorry,” she says again. “You really do like her, don’t you?”

Eren blinks. “What are you talking about?”

Mikasa blinks too. “Annie,” she says.

Eren raises an eyebrow at her. “What about her?”

“You –” Mikasa pauses abruptly. “But Jean said – ”She gapes at him like she’s just realized something hugely important and then snaps her mouth shut and looks away. “I’m sorry,” she says, piling her things together and getting up. “I shouldn’t be – your – sorry.”

“What the fuck are you on about?” Eren props himself up on his elbows and watches her awkwardly gather her things. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she says quickly. She pauses on her way out of the room. “I really am sorry for the way I’ve been acting. I shouldn’t... interfere. G’night, Eren.”

x

**Facebook Messenger**

**Eren:  
** What did you tell Mikasa that’s making her act weird?  
 **Jean:  
**...what are you talking about?  
 **Eren:  
** We were talking about her rivalry with Annie and she said that you said something before she stopped talking and walked away.  
What did you tell her  
 **Jean;**  
Uh  
Sorry dude, I’m kinda busy right now, ttyl

x

Mikasa makes a point of dodging his questions the next morning, which is weird, and it just gets weirder when they get to school and Jean and Marco do the same. He spends most of the day trying to get answers out of _someone_ but either they all know something he doesn’t or they’re plotting against him.

(He’s relatively sure it’s the former because Mikasa is on in it and Mikasa would _never_ ).

He complains to Armin about it as they line up for lunch. “I just don’t see why they can’t tell me what the hell’s going on.”

Armin huffs impatiently. “You know, if you show them you care, they’re not going to tell you.”

“I _do_ care, though,” whines Eren, ignoring the face Armin makes at him as he grabs two trays from the stack at the end of the counter. “It’s not fair for them to keep something like that secret – we’re supposed to be friends, and besides --”

“Oh, look, it’s Annie,” interrupts Armin loudly. He jabs a finger at her as she leaves the line and heads for the same bench she’d been sitting at two days before.

Eren cuts himself off immediately in favour of watching her, and out of the corner of his eye, he catches Armin rolling his eyes. “What?”

He shrugs, hiding an amused smirk. “Are you going to sit with her today?”

Eren considers it. On the one hand, he could spend lunch trying to weedle information out of Jean, Marco and Mikasa. On the other, he could talk to Annie. He feels like one of these tasks is considerably more difficult than the other, and to be honest, if the guys and Mikasa are going to be such a pain about whatever it is they’re keeping secret, then, yeah, he’d prefer to sit with Annie.

“Yeah,” he answers, turning back to his friend. He pauses. “What are they not telling me, Armin?”

Armin tries not to laugh. “You have to figure that out on your own, Eren. I’ll see you later.”

x

“Made it home last night, I see.” He grins at Annie as he comes to join her on her bench. “Is it cool if I join you again?”

Annie rolls her eyes at him and smirks a little. “As if you’d take no for an answer,” she says, and she shuffles over and makes a spot for him on the bench.

Eren smiles gratefully, and he drops his bag at his feet and sits down. “Is it okay if I bring Mikasa to the dojo to watch some time?”

She shrugs. “If you want. Don’t let me stop you.”

“Okay.” Eren pauses. “How come you haven’t been sitting with Bert and Reiner lately?”

“They’re nosy bastards,” she says shortly.

He takes his turn to shrug. “I dunno, yours is pretty pointy, too.”

There’s a pause, and he doesn’t realize what he’s said until after he’s said it. His eyes grow wide and he snaps his mouth shut and, instinctively, he braces himself, shielding his face with his arms from the hit he knows is coming. “I didn’t mean that!” he says quickly. “It was a joke, please don’t punch me!”

It doesn’t come, and he peers at her over his elbows at her to find her giggling quietly to herself over her lunch. He stares. He’s seen smirks and amused smiles from her before, usually because she’s a little bit of a sadist, but the sight before him now is so surreal that he lets his guard down. He realizes that he was too late, and she jabs him in the forehead so hard that he almost loses his balance on the bench.

He yelps. “What the hell?!”

“You’re lucky I tolerate you,” she says, still kind of smiling, and Eren has a terrible time trying to take his eyes off her lips. “But you really do need to learn how to talk to girls.”

“I can talk to girls,” he says dumbly.

She scoffs. “Sure, you can.”

x

He brings Mikasa to their lesson on Saturday morning, after Annie finishes up with Hannes’ junior classes. She looks ready to punch something when they arrive, and Eren offers a sheepish grin when they meet her at the top of the steps.

“Bad lesson, huh?”

She scowls. “I don’t like kids.” She nods at Mikasa.

Mikasa nods back, and Eren grins dumbly at them both before he heads into the building.

He gets dressed quickly because, to be honest, Mikasa may have promised to try to get to know Annie, but he doesn’t know if it’s the best idea to leave them in the same room together with nothing to break the tension. When he gets back to the practise room, they’re sort of staring each other down, and he coughs awkwardly.

 “Uh. Should we get started?”

Annie is the first to break their staring contest in favour of looking at him. “Yeah. Let’s see what you remember from Thursday.”

It carries on like a regular lesson from there. Annie teaches him a couple of new moves and how to put them into practise in the middle of a fight, and then they spar for a bit, and honestly, Eren’s quite relieved because things are going pretty well. Mikasa sits in the corner of the practise room looking mildly interested as they spar. It’s such a normal first one and a half hours that he almost forgets his sister is even there, and Annie ends the first half of their lesson after he loses his fifth straight spar.

“God, I’m never going to win, am I?” he groans.

Annie smirks as she stands over him. “No.”

“Geez.” He sits up. “I get enough of this from Mikasa, why do I keep doing this?”

“Oh?” Annie tilts her head at him curiously and glances at Mikasa. “You beat him up too?”

Despite herself, Mikasa smirks. “Not to this extent. My dad would kill me.”

Annie shrugs because she supposes it’s a valid point. “What do you do?”

“I did a lot of kendo when I was younger,” says Mikasa. “Not so much anymore.”

“Hm.” Annie pauses for a second, and Eren watches her mull something over in her mind. At last, she offers him a hand and she pulls him to his feet. “Take a break,” she says. “I’ll be back in a second.”

Eren blinks at her, but she excuses himself before he can argue. He sighs, and moves to join Mikasa in the corner. “See? She’s not so bad.”

His sister shrugs and draws her knees to her chest. “I guess,” she says hesitantly. “You okay?”

“A little sore, but that’s nothing new.” He nudges her with his elbow and grins. “It’s a cool technique, though, huh?”

“Yeah. I’ll give her that.” They lapse into silence, and Mikasa pulls a water bottle out of her bag and hands it to him. “Sorry. She seems nice enough, and I never should have been so snippy.”

The door to the practise room slides open, and Annie returns with what looks like a couple of shinai (or stick swords as Eren had called them when he was younger) and a spare gi, and suddenly Eren knows where this is going. “Oh my God.”

Annie ignores him and offers the gi and one of the shinai to Mikasa. “It’s hardly proper gear, but we can make do.”

“Guys, come on, don’t do this –”

Mikasa makes a face at him and takes the gi. “Eren. Shut up.”

Annie snorts. “Don’t freak out,” she says, smirking. “It’s just a friendly spar, right, Ackerman?”

“Mikasa,” Mikasa corrects, and she smirks too.

Too late, Eren wonders if this really was a good idea or if he’s just made a terrible mistake.

 


	9. IX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It begins with one spar, and suddenly, she and Annie get along better than they get along with anyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I am a really strong believer in the idea that someone had to break up Annie and Mikasa's fight in the manga because they were too evenly matched to have a definitive winner. I also just want all my babies to be friends.
> 
> 2) Shout out to Bay, as always, and to everyone who left me feedback on the last chapter. Feedback is awesome, you guys, it makes sure I don't procrastinate on this.

**IX**

Most of what Mikasa knows about Annie are things she’s heard from Eren, but she knows, from the second she accepts the gear from her, that this will not be a regular fight. She and Annie share a similar history, in that they have been taught to fight in more than one style since they were very young. The difference is this: Kendo has always been Mikasa’s preferred technique but she is _very_ out of practise. On the other hand, kendo is very _not_ Annie’s style, and yet, here she is, willingly challenging someone she knows is her equal in most other sports in a match where she doesn’t have the upper hand.

It’s a fight that could literally go either way, and Mikasa may have promised to try and get along with her, but it will be very unlike her to refuse this challenge.

She changes quickly and returns to the practise room to find Eren on his feet, looking ready to just about beg Annie to call off the challenge.

“Come on, seriously, you guys don’t have to do this –”

“ _Fucking hell, Eren, chill the shit out._ ” Annie glares at him, and Mikasa finds that she’s a little impressed at the other girl’s ability to shut her brother up. “I swear to God, I will kick you out if you don’t stop whimpering.”

“But –” He glances at Mikasa for help, but she merely shrugs.

“I’m with Annie,” she says shortly. “You put two experts in the same room. What did you think was going to happen?”

Eren groans. “I just wanted you guys to be _friends –_ ” he whines, but Mikasa glares at him too.

“Yeah, and we’re having a friendly spar, right now,” she snaps. “If you can’t handle it, get out.”

With both girls staring him down, Eren swallows and snaps his mouth shut, taking a seat again in the corner of the room. They wait an entire minute for any more protests before Annie rolls her eyes and beckons Mikasa to the centre of the floor.

“Real quick,” she says. She gestures to the shinai. “These aren’t mine. I kinda just stole them from the gear shed, so we make an agreement now not to be too rough. No aiming for the face for obvious reasons, but otherwise, land a hit to score, first to two wins and other standard rules apply. No formalities, though, because that’s too much effort and there’s only one available judge.” She jerks her head at Eren. “Fair?”

Mikasa shrugs again. “Fair.” She glances at her foster brother. “Any objections?” she asks him in a tone that says _there’d better not be because we are making an actual effort just so you don’t worry._

Eren makes an odd sort of noise in his throat, but he shakes his head vigorously and keeps his mouth shut.

“Good,” says Mikasa mildly. “On three. Eren, get over here and count.” She nods at Annie and moves into the ready stance.

Annie does the same, and Eren shifts over reluctantly to referee the match.

“One...” he says.

Mikasa takes a breath and studies Annie closely.

“Two.”

Annie flicks her bangs out of her eyes and studies her back.

“Three.”

Mikasa strikes first. She lunges forward, swinging her shinai down from over her shoulder. Annie is quick to dodge, and she raises her own to parry the blow. She lunges too, aiming a hit at Mikasa’s torso, but Mikasa is just as quick and she spins to avoid the attack.

Annie surges forward. She parries.

She swings. Annie dodges.

Spin. Parry. Dodge. Parry. Lunge.

 _Thwack!_ The hit lands on Annie’s side, and she lets out a hiss and retreats.

From the sidelines, Eren lets out a squeak.

“Not bad,” says Annie, clutching her side.

“Not bad, yourself,” Mikasa says. She winces. “Sorry,” she adds quickly, because the hit was harder than she’d meant and others have landed enough hits on her in her youth for her to know that Annie will have a bruise under her ribs in the morning.

Annie shakes her head and resumes her opening stance. “Eren.”

He groans. “Do you guys _really_ —”

“ _Eren._ ”

“Ugh. One.”

Mikasa mirrors her.

“Two.” Over on the sidelines, Eren slips his phone out of Mikasa’s bag. “Three.”

The fight begins again, and it’s another round of lunges and dodges and attempted hits. Annie is faster on her feet than Mikasa had expected and the match is as intense as the first, if not more. She ducks under Annie’s blows and Annie spins to avoid hers. The air is filled with clacks of bamboo striking bamboo and of heavy breaths and frustrated kiais and, finally, Annie surges forward again.

Mikasa anticipates the hit and moves accordingly to dodge it, but Annie feints at the last minute and lands a blow on her forearm.

“That’s one all,” says Eren, and Mikasa steps back, shoulders heaving with her arm clutched to her chest.

Annie takes her turn to apologise. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she answers, shaking it off. She glances at Eren and frowns when she realizes the camera of his phone is pointed at them. “What are you doing?”

“Snapchatting this to the others,” he answers. “Come on, you’ve proven your point, can you guys—”

“ _Eren,_ ” they snap in unison.

He huffs. “Last one, okay? This calls it. One.”

Both girls roll their eyes at him as they return to their initial stances.

“Two.” He sighs. “Three.”

Annie strikes first this time, and Mikasa dodges and shifts into an attack of her own. She will admit, right now, that Annie is a damn good opponent and that maybe they should have started sparring years ago because she understands now why Eren is so eager to learn her techniques. She is lighter on her feet than most kendoka and she dodges with more grace than kendoka should have. Her movements are fluid but still precise and her stances are not quite right but still powerful. Mikasa imagines it’s the influence of years of training in other martial arts, and she thinks, maybe Eren’s right. Perhaps getting along with her isn’t as impossible as she’s made it sound. She’d make a good sparring partner at least.

She aims a hit at Annie’s shoulder, and, too late, she realizes that Annie is doing the same. The match ends when they strike each other’s shoulders at the exact same time, and, amidst their pants and hisses of pain, someone begins to applaud on the sidelines.

“Well, that’s the fiercest match I’ve ever seen.”

They glance at the sidelines, and Mikasa feels a grin tug when she spots Hannes standing with Eren to the side of the room. “Hannes! How’s your knee?”

“Not bad,” he says, handing his crutches to Eren and hobbling forward. “Beautiful match, girls, I only wish I saw the whole thing. Who won?”

“It was a tie,” Annie tells him, a smirk gracing her lips. “We’re pretty evenly matched.”

“Yeah,” agrees Mikasa. “We should do it again,” she says to Annie mildly. “Eren’s nowhere near enough of a challenge.”

Annie snorts and nods. “I might take you up on that because _I know, right?_ ”

“Hey!”

They ignore him, and Hannes chortles to himself. “I just came in to check in on Annie, but I’ll admit that this was much more entertaining. Come on, I’ll treat you all to smoothies.”

“Oh,” says Annie, blinking. “I shouldn’t, I mean—”

“Of course you can,” says Mikasa. “Don’t make us put up with Eren by ourselves.”

“ _Seriously?!”_

But Annie blinks again, rather taken aback that the invitation came from Mikasa. “I really shouldn’t, I don’t want to impose—”

Hannes scoffs. “Don’t be like that, Annie. We can discuss a little business as well. Come and get smoothies with us.”

Despite himself, Eren steps forwards and grins at her too. “Please?”

She sighs. “Fine. Okay.”

Eren’s grin gets wider, and Mikasa can’t help it: she grins also.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Mikasa

To: Annie

You should reconsider coming over on tomorrow because pleasedontmakemeputupwiththoseidiotsalone

x

It begins with one spar, and suddenly, she and Annie get along better than they get along with anyone else. She is quiet but above the gossip that carries on at school, and she shows an appreciation for Mikasa’s skills with a shinai more than most. She’s snarky enough to keep Eren under control, and they share enough of the same interests for Mikasa to personally invite her over on games day so she doesn’t have to put up with the boys by herself.

Annie is mostly surprised by all of this, and Mikasa can tell, because she is just as surprised when Annie accepts.

They take refuge on the porch while the boys yell at each other about stealing kills and headshots, and Mikasa groans into her orange juice when Eren lets out a particularly loud “FUCK YEAH!”

“Are they always like this when they play games?” asks Annie, propping her feet up on a spare outdoor chair.

Mikasa nods and she rolls her eyes, glancing at the boys through the front window. “You can see why I invited you over.”

Annie snorts and sips delicately at her drink. “How have you managed?” she deadpans.

“Usually, I leave,” she says, “but I really don’t like being kicked out of my own house because of those idiots.” She shakes her head. “You won’t get any trouble for hanging out, will you? From Mina and the others, I mean.”

“Pfft.” Annie snorts again. “You should have seen them when I started teaching your brother.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” Annie nods and tilts her head back against the back of the chair. “It’s too much trouble to deal with.”

Mikasa raises an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t think you were the type to just avoid an issue like that.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t,” she says. “But Eren’s actually a pretty talented kid and don’t tell him I said so, but he’s not that bad to teach. I explained the situation to them, like, four times, and I kept getting accusations of, ‘ _oh, maybe you liiiike him’_.” She huffs and looks away.

Mikasa pauses and notes the dusting of red on the blonde’s cheeks.

“What?” she asks. “Don’t they ever give you any trouble for that kind of thing?”

Mikasa shrugs, sipping lightly at her orange juice. “Not really,” she answers. “Armin and Marco generally have a little more maturity than most guys. Eren’s my foster brother so he doesn’t, and it’s relatively common knowledge that Jean’s been trying to ask me out for a couple of years.” She stops.

“And...” Annie prompts.

Mikasa hesitates. “He tries too hard,” she answers, looking at her fingers pointedly. She shakes her head. “You know, I know we only started getting along, like, yesterday, but you shouldn’t have to avoid other friends because they’re so nosy. Regardless, you’re welcome to hang out with us until they get over it. At least they know when to stop.”

“What? Them?” Annie scoffs.

“I promise they’re not always this bad,” says Mikasa. “I mean, they’re idiots, but what did you expect, really? They let Eren make the plans.”

At this, Annie can’t help the chuckle that escapes her lips. They lapse into a comfortable silence, broken only the sounds of the boys arguing over which game to play next, and, after a moment, Mikasa takes her phone out of her pocket and unlocks the screen.

“You’re not going refuse my friend request like you did with Eren, are you?” she asks absently.

Annie raises an eyebrow at her. “Really?”

Mikasa smirks. “I need a sparring partner,” she says as Annie’s phone _dings_ in her pocket.

She sighs.

x

 **Annie Leonhardt** and **Mikasa Ackerman** are now friends.  
 _Just now_

x 


	10. X

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and his friends are generally very in tune with each other so Annie probably shouldn't have been so surprised that they've learned how to keep in tune with her as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I'm sorry it's a little late. This story is starting to become like the bane of my existence because we're literally half way through and I already have the rest of it planned out but it is suuuuuch a pain to write. UGH I hope you guys still like this because it's eating me up and destroying my soul and even I don't know if I actually like this fic anymore because it's such an ass to write.
> 
> 2) The rest of the month is going to be really super busy on my end so I'm gonna try really hard to keep updates relatively consistent, but no promises. The goal, though, is to finish before the end of summer (winter for probs most of you guys except I can't hear you over the sound of Australian Christmas whaaaat).
> 
> 3) Shout out to Bay for being amazing as always.

**X**

The weirdest thing about hanging out with Eren, Mikasa, and their group of friends more regularly is the fact that they're so in tune with each other that they  _know_  who likes who and who's gone where, but they just don't  _care._

Well. They don't care  _much._

It's considered common knowledge that Jean has the  _biggest_ crush on Mikasa that Annie has ever seen, for example, but she can't help but notice that no one gives  _him_  shit about it. In fact, the only time it ever comes up is when he actually tries to make advances, after which Mikasa rejects him and the guys give him a sympathetic pat on the back before they move on and talk about other things.

It's nice, Annie thinks, that they give him that space, particularly because she'd always pegged Eren's group of friends to be typical and gossip-y and, well,  _immature_ – which, admittedly, they are, but there's an element of maturity there that makes it tolerable. They're childlike, she supposes, not child _ish_ , and, to be honest, they're not  _that_  bad.

She's grown relatively used to Eren, so he doesn't count anymore. Armin's a nice kid – a little bit of a pushover perhaps – but he's smart, and he's got guts and something close to a manipulative streak that Annie can't help but respect. She and Mikasa are still rivals and still try to outdo each other in classes like PE, but they get along pretty well now – probably because they're two girls with similar interests in a group full of loudmouthed boys. Jean and Marco are idiots, but their interactions remind her sort of Reiner and Bert, only a little more...  _unrestrained_ , she could say.

It's been a couple of weeks since her first games day with them and they've sort of semi-adopted her into their group (mostly because of Eren) and she'll admit that despite the fact that their table is loud and ridiculous and different, it's an okay kind of different and she doesn't  _really_ mind putting up with it. She glances at Reiner and Bert and Mina's table sometimes though because she sorta misses them – not the quiet or the privacy they gave her, but  _them_  as people – as her  _friends._

"Hey."

She blinks, snapped out of her thoughts by the finger that prodding insistently at her shoulder. It's Eren, she notes, and she looks up at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"You okay?" he asks. "You're really quiet."

"I'm always quiet," she points out.

"More so than usual today," says Eren, nudging her elbow gently. "What's the matter?"

Annie shrugs mildly and turns back to her lunch. "It's nothing," she says. She's relatively sure it's nothing, but her eyes flit over to Reiner and Bert and Mina briefly before she can stop them.

Eren makes a face at her. "Come on, Annie, you don't really expect me to believe –"

There's a polite cough from Annie's other side, and Mikasa leans over her to give her brother a warning glare. "Weren't you supposed to go and see Miss Zoe about that biology assignment today?" she asks.

Eren pouts at her. "I can eat lunch first, can't I?"

"Make sure you don't forget," she says shortly. She turns to Annie. "You going to the dojo after school?"

Annie blinks a second time. "It's Monday," she points out. "I only work Tuesdays and Saturdays – and when your brother asks for a beating."

Mikasa hums thoughtfully. "I left my jacket in one of the spare lockers from Saturday."

"You could have gotten it yesterday," says Annie, raising an eyebrow at her.

"It's in the instructor's locker room." Mikasa sips at her soda. "I don't have access to there unless you let me in."

Annie snorts. "You could have just asked."

"I am asking," says Mikasa matter-of-factly. She smirks at her and Annie sighs and scoffs into her lunch.

"Fine," she says. She doesn't need to say anything else because Mikasa nods and tucks back into her lunch and Annie knows she understands. Eren was right, she supposes – she and Mikasa share more interests than they care to admit and, to be totally honest, they get along like as if they always have.

Beside her, Eren clears his throat. "Can I come with you guys after school?"

Mikasa shrugs. "If you want."

"Cool, it's settled. Armin, do you want to come too?"

Armin opens his mouth to answer, but Jean cuts him off.

"Thanks for inviting us, Jaeger," he snaps.

Marco rolls his eyes at him. "We can't anyway, Jean. We need to get your German homework sorted out today, remember?"

"Yeah but –"

"I'd better not," Armin interrupts, offering them an apologetic smile. "I have a meeting with the chess club after school today, so you guys go ahead. If you're still around after like five-ish, text me and I'll meet up with you somewhere."

"Good idea," says Eren. He casts Annie a sidelong glance and catches Mikasa's eye. "What if we just wait for you at that coffee place?" he suggests.

Armin nods. "Sounds good," he says, and too late, Annie realizes which coffee shop they're talking about.

She tenses. "Wait. The coffee shop, as in the one a couple of blocks from here?"

"Yeah," Mikasa affirms. She pauses, and Annie may not be as good as reading people as someone like Armin, but she notes the wrinkle in Mikasa's brow and the way she studies her expression and Annie  _knows_  that she knows something's up. "That's okay, right?"

"Uh." Annie coughs. "Yeah. That's – that's fine."

x

The truth is that Annie misses Bert and his nervous ticks, Reiner and his know-it-all brotherly-ness, and Mina in all her sweetness and loquacity, but she's been so adamant on ignoring their messages for so long that she doesn't quite know how to face them. Was it really so bad that she wanted some space, though? She was frustrated and annoyed, and okay, maybe she could have handled it better than she did, but they wouldn't be mad at her for that, would they?

It's kinda weird actually, because she's never really worried this much about what other people think, but Bert, Reiner, and Mina are different. They're her friends. They're three of maybe six people that she actually likes. They've dealt with her at her worst and know her at her best, and she'd ditched them because they'd gotten too nosy.

"Are you  _sure_ you're okay?"

Annie glances to find Eren staring at her. They're at the dojo now, and they're waiting in the hall for Mikasa to collect her jacket from the instructors' locker room and, too late, Annie realizes she's been fidgeting nervously with the hem of her blazer. "What?"

Eren cocks his head at her curiously. "You seem kind of distracted – and not just now – you've been weird since lunch. What's wrong?"

"I –  _nothing_." Annie makes a face at him. "It's not that big a deal."

"It is to you, apparently," Eren points out. He crosses his arms and leans casually against the wall. "You're going to wear out your blazer if you keep fidgeting like that."

She scowls but the door to the instructors' locker room swings open, and Mikasa nods at the two of them and holds up her jacket.

"Got it. Thanks, Annie."

"No problem." Annie nods back, secretly thankful for the interruption, and locks the door after her. She catches Mikasa's eye, and the other girl gives her a look like she knows something Annie doesn't. It's a little unnerving, but Mikasa turns to her brother before she can say anything about it.

"We should go," she says.

Eren hesitates. "Uh – Annie?"

"It's fine," she says hastily. "Let's – um – let's go."

x

They get as far the front entrance of the little coffee shop Reiner works at when Annie hesitates at the door. It's stupid. She  _knows_  that it's stupid but there's something in the pit of her stomach that makes her shift uneasily under her skin. Even from here, she can see Bert seated at his usual stool by the counter and Reiner bustling around by the coffee machine and – what  _is_ this? Is she  _nervous?_

Her– Annie Leonhardt –  _nervous?_

"Annie?"

There's someone prodding at her shoulder again and she glances away from her friends by the counter to spot Eren eyeing her, half curious, half concerned.

"Do you want anything?"

"Uh – " She shakes her head as Eren ushers her ahead of him. "No. I'm fine."

"You sure? It's on me."

"I –"

There's a cough from behind the counter and she and Eren and Mikasa look over in time to see Reiner grinning at them from the coffee machine. "She'll have a mocha," he calls. He nudges Bert, and he turns to face them as well.

He smiles too. "Hi, Annie. We missed you."

Annie looks away. "Hi," she greets awkwardly.

Reiner chuckles, and he waves her and Eren and Mikasa over before she can say anything about it. He's also got her mocha on the counter before Bert's even pulled a stool out from under the counter for her.

"Thanks," she mumbles to both of them when she takes a seat. She fidgets awkwardly with the hem of her blazer again when she realizes that Eren and Mikasa aren't behind her to... well, back her up, she supposes. They're lined up at the cashier to place their orders, and for some reason, she's suddenly four hundred times more self conscious without them standing behind her. She doesn't know when she'd become so attached to them, but Bert is here and he's smiling at her like he's always done. She feels mostly terrible because he's been her friend longer than they have but she's been ignoring his, and Reiner's and Mina's messages for weeks.

"It's been a while," he comments, and Annie swallows a lump in her throat because yes, yes it has.

Perhaps that's all it is – it's just been a little bit since they last spoke and maybe it's just been hard to approach them again. "I'm sorry I've been so distant," she says at last. "It's just –"

"You don't have to apologise." Bert chuckles. "We know we were nosier than we should have been and you have a right to hang out with whoever else you want without being interrogated for it. We're your friends – we should have known that."

Annie shakes her head. "I'm still sorry," she mumbles. "That was no reason for me to avoid you both for weeks."

Bert rolls his eyes at her and pats her shoulder. "It's okay. Really. It's good to see you branching out, y'know? It's just been us three and occasionally Mina for so long, that's all." He purses his lips and stares in the murky depths of his coffee before he speaks again. "Eren's a good kid," he says. "Reiner and I were... worried, I guess. But it's been a couple of weeks now, and it was a stupid thing to worry about."

Annie scoffs into her coffee. "What's  _that_  supposed to mean?"

Bert pauses to give her a sidelong glance and a knowing smile. "Whatever you want it to mean," he answers cryptically.

"...Right." She heaves a sigh and sips delicately at her coffee, humming as the taste of chocolate and caffeine slides past her tongue. She's missed Reiner's coffee. She's missed Reiner, and it's a shame he's working right now because catching up with Bert is different from catching up with both of them at the same time. They've always been a pair – like brothers. She glances at him from the corner of her eye and can't help the smile that tugs at her lips. "It's good to see you, Bertl," she says.

He grins. "It's good to see you too, Annie."

"Hm." Out of the corner of her eye, Annie spots Eren and Mikasa grinning at her from the line at the cashier. She scoffs to herself.

Of course.

Eren and his group of friends have always been very in tune with each other, and as she's been semi-adopted by them, it stands to reason that they're in tune with her now too.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Annie

To: Eren

You knew what was going on this whole time. You and Mikasa did this on purpose, didn't you?

**-**

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

I don't know what you're talking about ;)  
(Achievement unlocked: cheer up Annie Leonhardt)

x


	11. XI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eren finally realizes what everyone else already knows.

**XI**

**New Text Message**

To: Annie

From: Dad

Come by the gym tonight, I have some news

x

Eren doesn’t think anything of it because Annie doesn’t.She stiffens a little when he leans over to read over her shoulder, but she checks the text quickly and taps out of her message box with a shrug.

“If you were anyone else, I’d have punched you for that,” she says lightly.

Eren shrugs too. “I’m not anyone else though,” he tells her, grinning. “Why haven’t you punched me yet?”

She smirks to herself. “You’ll get plenty of those at the dojo.”

“ _Ha._ ” Eren lets out a nervous laugh and shifts away, because he knows she means it and, at this point, he knows it better than anyone.

They’re sitting at the back of the library for free period, and Annie is small enough to be able to sit with her legs crossed on the seat of her chair. She has her English homework propped up against a stack of textbooks to conceal her phone so she can facebook Bertl and Reiner without Miss Ral threatening to confiscate it. Eren is beside her, and he has no issues admitting that he’s been trying to steal glances at her answers all period because her handwriting is so awful that one, he can’t read it anyway, and two, with handwriting like that, he’s genuinely surprised she does well altogether.

He heaves a sigh. “Your handwriting sucks,” he comments.

“So does yours,” says Annie without looking up. “The difference is I have answers, and you don’t.”

“What use is having answers if no one can read them?”

“The teachers can read my handwriting just fine,” says Annie. “There’s no need to throw a tantrum just because no one wants to let you copy.”

Eren scowls at her, but he catches the little smile on her lips and the amusement in her eyes, and he sighs again and lets it go. Annie’s smiles are relatively rare, but they’re nice enough that Eren will actually swallow his pride to witness them. Truth be told, he kind of likes the idea that he’s one of the few people allowed to see it – it’s kinda sweet, and it’s nice to see the sparkle in her eyes, and it makes her look so pretty and –

Wait.

_What._

Heat rushes to his face, and he gets up so suddenly that his chair falls over.

“What the –” Annie begins, but she’s interrupted by Miss Ral, who’s on them so fast that Annie doesn’t have time to hide her phone.

“Eren!” she snaps sternly. “What is going on here? And Annie, put that phone away or I will take it off you.”

“Sorry, Miss,” they mumble together, and Annie slips her phone into her bag with a scowl while Eren hastily packs his things away.

“I – uh – have to go do a thing,” he says awkwardly. The heat in his face won’t go away, and he can’t even look at Annie right now, with her eyes and her hair and her smiles and G _oddammit, how long has this even been an issue?_ “I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

Annie frowns at him, confused. “Okay?”

“Yep. Um.” He coughs. “Bye.”

x

He ambushes Armin in between periods.

“Hey Eren – whoa, you okay?”

“No.” Eren fidgets dumbly with the sleeves of his jacket, making a point of not looking Armin in the face. His face is still flaming and his chest is all weird and tight, and it gets worse every time he pictures Annie’s face and her amused little smile in his mind’s eye. “Something’s wrong,” he manages at last.

Armin pauses, arm stilling in his locker for a moment. “Is something _actually_ wrong, or is this about an assignment you forgot to do?”

Eren makes a face at him. “What’s that supposed to – ” He huffs. “Something is actually wrong, okay – there is a real issue at hand.”

“And that is...?” Armin shuts the locker door and waits.

“I – uh – ” Eren clears his throat and stares at his feet. He can feel the blood returning to his face because he knows he’s going to get shit for this, and – hang on a minute. He narrows his eyes at his friend. “You already know, don’t you?”

Armin shrugs. “I might, but currently, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You _do_ know,” says Eren, jabbing an accusatory finger at him. “You know everything!”

“I could agree, but I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Eren makes a noise of frustration and stomps petulantly at the ground. “You know about Annie.”

Armin nods slowly at him, clearly still confused. “Yeah, she sits at our table sometimes because of you?”

“No, I mean – ” He takes a breath. “You – you know about how I... _feel..._ about Annie.”

“ _Oh._ ” Armin holds back a laugh and shoves his hands in the pockets of his blazer. “Yeah, of course I know. Everyone knows.”

“ _Are you kidding me?_ ” He gapes at his friend. “How long have you known?”

“Like, a month.” He gives Eren a look. “You weren’t exactly subtle about it,” he points out. “I mean, come on, dude – you dragged her over to our table and when she refused, you went and joined her anyway. Plus, I swear to God, you guys are joined at the hip in between classes. Except now, obviously. The question is how did _you_ not know?” He pauses. “Wait, is this what you meant when you said you had a problem?”

“Uh.” Eren lets out an awkward cough and twiddles his thumbs dumbly. “Maybe?”

Armin sighs. “Dude. Come on. Be mature about this. Just ask her out.”

“What, just like that? You’re supposed to give me advice about this!”

“Yeah,” says Armin, nodding. “And that advice is to just ask her out. The worst that could happen is that she’ll say no.”

Eren stares at him like he’s not speaking English. Armin has always been one of the few people in the school with enough common sense to be called _mature_ , but to be honest, being so upfront about it just sounds crazy. It’s not _really_ that simple, he thinks, because Annie is not just any girl with a pretty smile – she can also beat his ass without batting an eyelash. She does so, and on a regular basis, in fact. Eren’s relatively used to it now, but the idea that she might reject him sounds like it’ll hurt a lot more than a punch in the gut, if only because he’s grown so used to her that he can’t imagine not having her around because he couldn’t keep his feelings under control.

“I can’t do that,” he manages at last. “Like. I can’t. What if she _does_ say no?”

Armin gives him a look. “Are we seriously going to have this conversation, bro?” He rolls his eyes at his friend and slips his phone out of his pocket to check the time. “I should go – I have to get to chem. We’ll talk about this later if you’re really that desperate, okay?”

“But –”

It’s too late. Armin’s already halfway down the hall and Eren is left by the lockers feeling more confused than he’s ever been.

x

He spots Annie standing by the gate with Mikasa and Jean after school. It’s kinda weird how well the girls get along now, but it’s definitely better than the way they got along before. He hesitates though, because Annie is smirking, and Mikasa and Jean are both blushing and –

No.

_No._

He can see it in the way that his sister is as red as her scarf, and in the way Jean is grinning shyly at her and – just – _no._

“Hey Jaeger!” calls Jean _much_ too happily, and Eren groans and turns his eyes back to the ground. “Guess what?”

Mikasa eyes Jean sternly, but she smiles too and waves her brother over. “Jean and I are going to get coffee. I’ll see you at home, okay?”

Eren scowls because one, Jean is taking _his_ _sister_ out on a date, and two, Jean is taking his sister out _on a date_ , and like, this is _bullshit_ – he only just realized that he’s been crushing on Annie for a month and Jean finally gets to go out with Mikasa? _Seriously?_

Annie raises an eyebrow at him. “What’s your problem?”

“Nothing,” he grumbles through gritted teeth, and he pats Mikasa’s shoulder and offers her what he thinks is a supportive and brotherly grin. “Have fun, okay?” Then he rounds on Jean, and his grin becomes very unsupportive very fast. “I will kill you if you screw up,” he threatens.

“Eren,” scolds Mikasa.

Eren sighs. “ _Mikasa_ will kill you if you screw up,” he corrects.

“ _Eren.”_

He huffs. “Sorry. Have fun. See you both later.” He and Annie wave good bye to the other two, and too late, Eren realizes this means he is now alone with... well, Annie.

There’s a pause.

“So uh,” he begins stupidly. “ _Hey_.”

Annie stares at him. “What is wrong with you? You’ve been weird since free period.”

“I – _ahem –_ nothing,” says Eren, trying to get his system to function normally again. “We should get going, yeah?”

“I guess,” says Annie. She’s still looking at him like he’s gone crazy, and, to be honest, he can’t really blame her. Still though, he would really appreciate it if she stopped, because he so doesn’t need this right now. He doesn’t need to be staring into her eyes which are so Goddamned blue he can’t stop staring in the first place, and she doesn’t need to be standing close enough for him to be able to count her eyelashes. He also _really_ doesn’t need to be wondering what it would be like to press his lips against hers and – _oh my God, this is getting out of hand._

“Uhm, actually.” He coughs. “I feel kinda sick. Ahem. Yep. I think we should pass on the dojo today. And uh – ”

“Eren,” she interrupts. Sometimes (a lot of the time), Annie gives him this look – like she thinks he’s an idiot, but she’s humouring him because why the fuck not? She’s giving it to him right now, in fact, and he tries to look away to hide the blush forming on his cheeks, only he can’t. “How stupid do you think I am?”

He stiffens. “That was not the impression I meant to give at all, I am so sorry, it’s just – uh – ”

She holds up a hand. “I don’t care. Let’s just go.”

Eren sighs. “Yeah, okay.” He pauses and fidgets a little as he falls into step beside her. “Out of curiosity, how’d Jean finally get Mikasa to agree to go out with him?”

Annie shrugs. “He just asked her. No tricks. No dumb pick up lines. He was just honest and upfront about it and I think she liked that he was sincere about it for once.”

“Would the same work on you?” he blurts. “Just. Hypothetically,” he adds hastily.

Annie considers it and shrugs a second time. “Depends, I guess. On who’s asking, and on how I felt about them and stuff. I dunno.” She hesitates. “Why? Are you asking?”

Eren looks away nervously. “Would you say yes if I was?”

There’s a pause. It’s long and awkward, and Eren stops in his tracks to wait for an answer.

“I’d say maybe,” Annie says at last. She’s a couple of steps ahead now, but she turns her head just enough for Eren to see the tiniest dusting of red on her cheeks and a small, flattered smile on her lips.

Eren grins and releases the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) SORRY I'VE BEEN AWAY. It's been a super busy month filled with Christmas parties and New Years parties and this was literally the busiest Christmas ever oh my gosh. 
> 
> 2) A belated Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and a biiiig Happy New Years to everyone because I love you all.
> 
> 3) Shout out to Reknownst on FFn who PM'd me the nicest message I've received in a while and just, thanks dude, I hope you're still enjoying this fic!


	12. XII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jean realizes that being honest works a million times better than pick up lines and that Annie might be just as slow as Eren.

**XII**

“You know, you _could_ just ask her out without a cheesy pick up line.”

Jean raises an eyebrow at Marco. They’re standing by the gate, watching as Mikasa and Annie make their way towards them through the after school crowd. “I tried that once, remember?”

“Things were different then,” Marco points out. “We were all, like, fourteen. We’re better friends now, and to be honest, I think she thinks you’re trying too hard.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Marco shrugs. “I’m saying that she might be more inclined to agree to go out with you if you’re honest with her,” he tells him. “No pick up lines, no jokes – just ask her like you want to go out with her because you like her, not because you want to sleep with her.”

“I don’t – it’s not like _that_!” Jean sputters, face reddening. “I don’t just want to – to _sleep with her_ – what kind of dick do you think I am?”

“You asked her if she had sunburn or if she was always that hot.” Marco snorts at him and shakes his head. “That’s my favourite one yet.”

Jean ducks his head in shame. “I can’t believe you let me use that.”

“I can’t believe you actually thought it was a good idea,” says Marco with an amused grin. “Look, Jean. You and I have been best friends since eighth grade. I want you to be happy, but I have to be honest with you, dude. The reason it doesn’t work out is because you try too damn hard. We’ve been hanging around Mikasa and friends for years, and she _does_ like you – we all know it – but she’s never going to agree to go out with you if you’re going to be seedy about it.”

“What do you suppose I do then?” snaps Jean, shooting a glare at him. “I tried the honest approach already and it didn’t work.”

“It will this time,” Marco says, clapping his shoulder. “Here they come. Good luck, okay?”

Jean blinks and turns to him, panic rising quickly in his chest. “What, you’re not staying?”

Marco shakes his head. “I told Armin we’d work on our physics project today. You’ll be fine. Just be honest.”

“But –”

“See you later, bud. Good luck.” Marco waves at the girls as they come nearer, offers Jean a final reassuring grin and takes his leave before he can object any more.

The panic gets worse as the girls come nearer. Jean fidgets dumbly with his fingers and he fights the urge to run because _fuck_ , smooth as he is when everyone else is around, it’s because _everyone else is around_. Annie’s here too, but she doesn’t count because he’s still terrified of her. Well. Less so than when she first started hanging out with them, but still.

“Hey,” greets Mikasa.

Annie nods in greeting too. “What’s the matter with you?”

Jean holds back a squeak and clears his throat. “N-nothing,” he manages awkwardly. “Um. Are you guys doing stuff today?”

Annie nods again. “Eren wants another lesson this afternoon, but I think Mikasa might be free.” She eyes them both curiously and pretends not to see the flush creeping up Mikasa’s face.

“W-wait,” says Mikasa. “Didn’t you say we were going to –”

“ _Nope_ ,” says Annie shortly. She gives Jean a look that blatantly says ‘ _Now’s your chance, don’t screw it up’_ and continues before he can object. “What have _you_ got planned today, Jean?”

Jean falters. “I – uh – ” He coughs. “I don’t really have a plan for today b-but – um – ” He takes a breath. “Mikasa, do – do you wanna – er –”

“For fuck’s sake,” mutters Annie, and Jean can’t help but flush deeper.

He glares at her. “Um. Mikasa, do you wanna get coffee or something? Just the two of us, y’know, and like, it doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be, but – but –” He fumbles awkwardly with his words, and he hopes he’s not as red as he thinks he is. His only consolation is that Mikasa is blushing furiously too. “It’s okay if you don’t—”

“Sure,” she says quickly. “I’d like that.”

There’s a pause, where Jean’s so stunned that he almost doesn’t notice Annie shaking her head and mumbling “You’re both idiots,” under her breath.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Jean

To: Marco

MARCO MARCO MARCO SHE SAID YES

x

No one knows this – well, Marco might, and Armin too, maybe – but Jean has had a thing for Mikasa since he was in seventh grade. He’d seen her walk into home room on their first day of junior high, and he remembers trying to talk to her before he’d realized she was Eren’s foster sister.

The first time he asked her out, he was in ninth grade. She’d rejected him. He pined for a month before Marco convinced him to try again.

And again.

And again.

And, well. Here they are. Sitting in the corner of a coffee shop with a couple of mugs and a brownie to share. Jean is pretty confident that this is the best day of his life so far, and he grins widely into his cup as he eyes her over the brim.

“How’s your hot chocolate?” he asks her.

Mikasa glances up at him. “It’s good,” she says shyly. “Thank you.”

He shrugs a little and offers her a smile. “Y’know,” he starts. “I’ve known you since we were both twelve years old, but I never knew you had such a sweet tooth.”

“Hm.” Mikasa chuckles and brings her mug to her lips. “I go through a packet of cookies a week,” she confesses. “It took Eren months to figure out why they were disappearing so quickly.”

Jean lets out a laugh.  “Typical Jaeger.”

“Jean...”

“I’m _kidding_ ,” he says. “Eren’s a cool guy, but you know, he is a little slow. Do you think he’s figured out his thing with Annie yet?”

Despite herself, Mikasa shakes her head. “No, but I wouldn’t call Eren slow unless you want to risk calling Annie slow too.”

“Annie what now?”

Mikasa raises an eyebrow at him. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

There’s a short pause, and Jean frowns at her over his coffee. “...you’re kidding.”

“I’m not.” She shrugs at him, leaning forward to break a piece off the brownie. “That’s right. Don’t pretend you didn’t see this coming.”

“ _You’re kidding.”_ Jean makes a noise in his throat that’s a cross between a choke and a laugh. He sets down his coffee. “How do you know?”

“I just do,” says Mikasa with a smirk. “You didn’t hear it from me.”

Jean lets out a chuckle because it’s amusing that Annie, of all people, would have a crush on Eren I’m-A-Suicidal-Bastard Jaeger. He can’t be a douche about it, though, because one, Annie is scary and commands more of his respect than anyone else other than maybe Mikasa, and two, because he _really_ owes her one. She and Mikasa were supposed to spar after Eren’s lesson today, he knows that for a fact, but he has a feeling she cancelled on the spot so he could have one more shot at asking Mikasa out today.

He never thought he’d say it, but thank heavens for Annie Leonhardt.

They lapse into silence that’s both comfortable but still a little bit weird because y’know, _what do people even talk about on dates?_ But Jean clears his throat after a second and speaks up again.

“Can I ask you something?” he begins.

Mikasa glances up at him. “You just did.”

“No, I mean –” He gives her a look. “Why today? You’ve rejected me so many times before – why today?”

She shrugs. “You were never as smooth as you thought you were. I think I just preferred you being honest.”

“Ah.” Jean snorts. He supposes he owes Marco one too.

x

Jean is either a huge romantic at heart or he’s been pining after Mikasa for too long – perhaps both at once – but after coffee, they go see a movie and after that, he buys her dinner. All in all, it’s a pretty good night, and he can tell because he’s never seen the sweeter side of Mikasa, and it’s just – she’s so _cute_ when she blushes and buries her nose into her scarf, and she’s so pretty when she smiles, and _augh, Jean, you got so damn lucky_.

He walks her home too even though Mikasa assures him that she’s more than capable of looking after herself (he knows she is – he saw the Snapchat of her and Annie’s fight) but he’ll be honest – it’s been such a lovely night that he’ll do it anyway because he doesn’t really want it to end.

They talk quietly, elbows brushing every now and then, and finally, they get to Mikasa’s, but it’s clear that even she seems a little reluctant to finish up their date.

She hesitates when they reach the top of the steps. “This was really nice, Jean,” she murmurs quietly.

He grins. “Maybe we should do it again some time,” he says.

“Yeah.” Mikasa chuckles “Thank you.”

“Thank _you,_ ” says Jean. “For finally agreeing to go out with me. You had fun, right?”

She nods, fiddling shyly with her keys. “I did.”

“Good.” Jean heaves a sigh. “Guess I should go.”

“Guess so.”

Jean pauses. “G’night, Mikasa.” He offers her a final grin and turns to head back down the steps, but Mikasa makes a grab for his wrist and tugs him back.

“Jean, wait.”

“Hm?”

Mikasa swallows, but she studies him closely for a second as if she’s trying to decide on something. Then, without any warning, she leans forward and pecks a spot on his cheek. She pulls away before he’s even realized it, and she’s blushing and hiding behind her scarf again as she squeezes his hand momentarily.

“G’night Jean.”

She’s gone before Jean can even figure out what’s just happened.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Jean

To: Marco

MARCO MARCO MARCO HOLY SHIT SHE KISSED ME

x

He sends the text _after_ he gets on the bus from Mikasa’s place because it takes him that long to process the events of the night. It was such a _good_ night that he’s still having issues believing it was real altogether.

He had a date with _Mikasa._

 _He_ had a date with _Mikasa._

 _He_ had a date with _Mikasa_ and then _she kissed him goodnight._

He’s never felt so damn happy _ever._ Nothing could ruin his mood at this point. Nothing, not even –

“Annie?”

He blinks, but the bus drives past the stop before he can get a closer look. It was Annie, though – he could _swear_ it was her, because she’s been hanging out with them enough during the weekends that he _knows_ her signature hoodie when he sees it. Except... it _couldn’t_ have been Annie, because the girl he saw was hunched over at the stop, wiping what looked like tears from her eyes and the Annie he’s come to know would _never..._

But...

“Stop the bus!” he calls.

The bus driver shoots him a glare through the rear view mirror, but he slams his foot on the brakes and stops. It’s late enough that Jean’s the only one on the bus anyway, and he rushes forward and mutters an apology as the bus comes to a halt by the sidewalk.

“Annie!” he calls, jogging back to the stop.

Annie looks up and rubs furiously at her face with the sleeves of her hoodie. She’s not quite as fixed up as she could be when Jean gets to her, and she sniffles as she greets him. “Jean,” she says. “What are you doing out so late?”

He raises an eyebrow at her. “What are _you_? Are you okay?”

Annie nods. “Fine,” she mumbles. “How was your date with Mikasa?”

“It was – It was good,” he says. “Fantastic actually, and I know you cancelled your spar today so Mikasa and I could hang out. Thanks for that. I really owe you one. But –” He studies her carefully and notes the redness in her eyes and – “Hey, what’s wrong with your lip?”

She blinks, touching her lips and cringing when she finds blood on the pads of her fingers.

“Eren didn’t give that to you, did he?”

“I –” She shakes her head. “It’s nothing,” she says again, getting up to flag down an approaching bus. “I’m fine.”

“But –”

She glares at him. “I’m _fine_ , Jean,” she snaps as the bus pulls up next to the stop. “I have to go.”

“Okay?” He stares after her awkwardly. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Right,” Annie mumbles, but she pauses just before she steps onto the bus. “Don’t tell Eren you saw me tonight, okay?”

“But you –”

“You said you owed me one,” she interrupts. “Don’t tell him.”

Jean hesitates, but it occurs to him after a second that Annie Leonhardt is as close as she will ever get to pleading for someone’s help – where “help” has a _very_ loose definition. “Okay,” he says at last. “But whatever it is, if it concerns him, then _you_ have to tell him.”

“I will,” she mumbles quietly. “Good night, Jean.”

She gets on the bus without another word.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Jean

To: Marco

Marco I think something’s wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Shout out to Bay as always, who I actually forgot to let beta last chapter haha whoops.
> 
> 2) This chapter might have more Jeankasa in it than ereannie, but I promise it's just for this chapter. Also Jean and Mikasa discuss the possibility of ereannie so it's not all bad.
> 
> 3) I am heading to the Philippines for my cousin's wedding so I will be gone for a couple of weeks. Please don't fret - there's just going to be a two week break between now and the next update. Sorry!


	13. XIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1) I wasn’t going to do this, but this story just reached the 100 review mark over on FFn and is one off 100 kudos here and like this is a big deal for me okay, so here is one more for the road as a huge huge huge thank you to everyone who reads this thing for helping me get this far.
> 
> 2) Shout out to Bay for being amazing as usual.
> 
> 3) I will be back in two weeks for real :P Do not fret! This thing is supposed to be about 20 chapters long, so we’ve still got a way to go and I have every intention of finishing it before my semester starts at the end of February. Thank you again, everyone!

**XIII**

**New Text Message**

From: Annie

To: Bertl

Can I come over?

-

**New Text Message**

From: Bertl

To: Annie

Sure? Is everything okay? It’s like 1030 at night

x

It’s nearly eleven when Annie knocks at Bertl’s door, but it’s not Bertl who answers.

It’s Reiner, and Annie doesn’t need to ask to know what he’s doing at Bertl’s so late at night. This is not the first time she’s taken refuge at one of their houses, but it’s been a while since she’s had to in the first place. The fact that she’d texted so late must have tipped Bertl off, and of course it would have been his first instinct to tell Reiner. They are both like brothers to her, and they will both be concerned if something is wrong.

Annie supposes she should be mad, but he takes one look at her and tugs her inside without asking any questions.

“It’s Annie!” he calls to Bertl, and the taller boy appears in the hall and nods.

“Hey,” he greets with a grim smile. “I’ve got the kit ready. Let’s fix you up, okay?”

There’s a lump in Annie’s throat, but she swallows it as Reiner gives her hand a gentle squeeze. He leads her into the Fubars’ living room and sits her down on the stool near the counter.

“Mom will be home soon,” Bertl tells her. “But until then, I’ll have to do. Is that okay?”

Annie nods. Bertl’s mother is a nurse at the local hospital, and, once upon a time, when this happened more often, she was the one who put ice on Annie’s bruises and cleaned any cuts and scrapes. She’d taught Bertl how to do it, in case anything ever happened while she was away, and his knowledge has come in handy more than once.

“Is it just this?” Bertl asks, gesturing to the bruise on her cheek and the cut on her lip.

Annie nods again, and he tilts her chin up gently so he can get a better look.

“I thought you said he’d stopped,” says Reiner after a moment. He’s standing a little behind Bert with a concerned frown on his face and his arms folded across his chest.

“He did,” mutters Annie, wincing as Bert presses an ice pack to her cheek. “He’s been fine for almost two years now, but he asked me to stop by the gym tonight and – ” She cuts herself off and looks away.

They wait for her to continue, but when it’s obvious she won’t, Reiner pulls up a stool and takes a seat next to her. “And then?” he prompts.

Annie hesitates. “He... had some news,” she begins quietly. She takes a breath to steady the tremble in her voice. “We’re... he wants to move to Stohess.”

“ _What_?” Bertl’s eyes widen and his hands still as they clean up the cut on her lip.

She swallows. “Yeah,” she murmurs. “He’s got most of the paperwork done and he said we’ll be ready to leave by the end of the month. I argued – of course I argued, I only have a year and half left at school here, and there’s you guys, and Eren and –” She pauses and blinks furiously at the floor. “It got really bad. He apologized as soon as he’d realized he’d done it, but I couldn’t – I couldn’t stay there – I didn’t know what else to do –”

“Annie. Hey, shh, it’s okay.” Reiner’s rubbing her back now and Bertl’s hands are on her shoulders. Too late, she realizes that she’s crying again, and she rubs the heels of her hands into her eyes to make the tears stop but they don’t. The last time this happened was two years ago. She thought he had changed. She thought she was _safe_ but then he’d _hit_ her again, and the idea that she has to move away from her friends with that man just – it _terrifies_ her.

“I think you should rest,” says Bertholdt quietly. “It’s going to be okay, Annie but for now, you should sleep.”

“I’m okay,” she insists, shaking her head, but her voice cracks and she’s still crying and it’s pretty obvious to everyone present that she is very not okay. “I don’t need – ”

“Yes, you do,” says Bertl, frowning at her. He takes the ice pack from her cheek and slides a couple of pills and a glass of water to her over the counter. “You don’t have to take these if you don’t want to, but you have to rest okay? Mom will be home soon, and Reiner’s gonna stay the night too. You can wake any of us if you have any trouble.”

Reiner hops off his stool and holds a hand out to her. “Come on. Everything’s going to be fine.”

She has a hard time believing it.

x

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

Hey, are you coming in today?

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

Are we still doing a training session tomorrow?

-

**Eren  
Missed calls (6)**

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

Oiii Answer my calls

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

I overheard Jean and Marco talking about something and they looked really worried and your name came up. Are you okay? What’s going on?

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Annie

Annie?

x

Annie sleeps until eleven the next day. It takes her a moment to register where she is and why her cheek feels bruised, and when she does, she stumbles out of bed to find Ms. Fubar in the kitchen, and Mina Carolina sitting at the counter with a plate of eggs.

“Good morning, dear,” greets Bertl’s mother kindly, and Mina swivels in the counter stool to offer her friend a small smile.

“Hey,” she greets. “How’re you feeling?”

Annie blinks at her. “I’ve been better,” she says quietly, lip smarting as she speaks. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at school?”

“Bert and Reiner told me what happened,” she explains softly. “They had to submit an assignment, but they didn’t want you to be alone today. Given the circumstances, I think I can afford to miss one day.” She nods at the plate of eggs. “These are yours. Come on, you must be starving.”

Annie hesitates, but Ms. Fubar beckons her forward with a smile.

“I need to have a look at your lip too, dear, but you should eat first. Come on.”

“I’m not –” Annie begins, but Ms. Fubar gives her a look that says not to argue, and she sighs and takes a seat at the counter. “Thank you,” she murmurs. Mina slides the plate over to her, and Annie nods gratefully and picks up her fork.

“Eren’s worried sick,” Mina tells her. “I dunno if he’s been blowing up your phone all morning, but he sure as hell has been blowing up mine. Should I tell him you’re okay?”

Annie shakes her head. “I’ll... text him later I guess.”

“Annie...”

“He can’t know, Mina,” she snaps.

Mina studies her carefully. “Why not?” she asks. “He’s your friend just as much Bert and Reiner and I are.”

“He just – he can’t.” Annie looks away, glaring at eggs. “He’s... he’s got a temper, and I don’t want to deal with him if he finds out.”

There’s a pause, and Ms. Fubar glances over her shoulder at them with a concerned frown. She doesn’t say anything, though. No one does, at least until Annie finishes her eggs and Ms. Fubar bustles over to examine her lip.

“The swelling’s gone down a fair bit,” she comments mildly, “but that bruise will be there for at least a week.” She sighs. “Annie, darling, will your father be home this morning?”

“No,” mumbles Annie.

“Good.” Ms. Fubar nods resolutely. “I’m going to get some groceries, and then I’ll drop by your place to pick you up an overnight pack.”

“Oh, no, please don’t –”

Ms. Fubar holds up a hand. “You’re not going home until we know you’re going to be okay,” she says sternly. “Don’t think I don’t remember how your father used to be, Annie, and if he’s going to start this again, then you’ll be staying here until we can be sure you’ll be safe at home. No arguments.”

“But –”

She’s stopped when a hand comes to rest on her shoulder. It’s Mina’s, and her words die on her lips when she catches the sad, pleading look in her friend’s eyes.

“Annie,” she says. “Please. We know you don’t want us to, but let us help.”

Annie swallows and turns her eyes back to her now empty plate. “Fine,” she says. “And... thank you.”

x

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Mina

Mina, where is she? She’s okay, isn’t she?

x

It’s one of many, _many_ texts that Mina has received from Eren today, and Annie has been watching as each text flashes on her phone screen. She’s sitting on the couch, and Mina is sitting on the carpet, and she can see the messages her friend is sending in her stead.

_Yes, she’s fine._

_She’ll be back at school in a few days._

_It’s her business, she’ll tell you if she wants._

Frankly, Annie’s surprised Mina has the patience to keep texting, because if it were her, she would have started ignoring the messages by now. Eren is the main culprit, really, because from the way his texts read, he doesn’t believe a word Mina says.

In the end, Mina hands over her phone.

“Call him,” she says. “Please. Let him know you’re okay.”

Annie makes a face. “I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” demands Mina. “He just wants to know that you’re okay, and he won’t take it from anyone who isn’t you. You know how he feels about you, don’t you?”

“I just –” Annie falters and looks away. “Yeah.”

“Yeah, you’ll call him?” asks Mina hopefully.

Annie shakes her head, and despite last night’s events, she can feel a blush creeping up her face. “Yeah, I know how he feels. How could I not know? He’s... not very subtle. Which is why I can’t...”

Mina frowns at her. “Why is that a reason you can’t tell him you’re okay?”

Annie doesn’t answer. The truth is that she’s still having trouble admitting it to herself: that yeah, Eren does have feelings for her, and that maybe, Mina and Bert and Reiner were right, and maybe she does sort of have feelings back. Maybe she didn’t at first, but she’s pretty certain she has them now. Eren, though... Eren has the worst damn temper she has ever seen, especially if it concerns his friends and loved ones, and if he ever found out – if he knew that her father had done this more than once in the past...

She can’t do that to him. She’s not someone he’s supposed to worry about. She’s supposed to be the one person that no one can hurt, but here she is, bruised cheek, cut lip, and with the possibility of moving to Stohess with the man who did this in the first place.

“Do I look okay to you?” she says at last.

She blinks. “Oh my God,” she mutters. “You...”

“Yeah,” says Annie, in a voice barely louder than a whisper. She doesn’t look her friend in the eye, but she doesn’t have to because Mina knows that it’s the truth. “I don’t need ‘I told you so’s’ right now, okay?”

“I wasn’t – ” Mina gives her a look. “Text him back. Please. You don’t even have to talk to him or anything. Just let him know that you’re safe.”

“I don’t –”

“Annie. Please.”

She sighs, and she’s about to when the phone buzzes in her hand and Reiner’s name flashes on the screen.

Mina frowns. She leans forward and swipes a finger across the answer bar and then taps the little speaker button on the screen. “Reiner?”

“ _Hey,”_ says Reiner. “ _Is Annie there?”_

“Yeah,” says Mina. “She’s right here with me. You’re on speaker, why?”

There’s a pause. “ _Eren wants to come and say hello.”_


	14. XIV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He can see it now: the bruise on her cheek and the split in her lip, and his mind goes into overdrive with an interrogation he’s sure Annie _and_ Mina would punch him for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) HI EVERYONE, I'M BACK. Sorry to keep y'all waiting longer than you needed to, but the wedding was great and then we went island hopping in the region of Palawan and basically, it was awesome but I am super glad to be back.
> 
> 2) Shout out to Bay as always.

**XIV**

Annie’s not in homeroom on Wednesday morning, and at first, Eren doesn’t think anything of it. He figures she’s just sick or late or something, so he sends her a couple of text messages during rollcall and expects that she’ll probably get back to him in an hour or so.

She doesn’t though. She doesn’t reply to any of his messages, and she doesn’t answer any of his calls either. This is weird because even though she’s never been much of a social butterfly, there has never been a day when Annie Leonhardt has actively avoided him – not even during the days when he’d bugged her constantly to accept his friend request.

By second period, he’s a little (a lot) uneasy about what’s going on ( _Had he done something wrong? Was this about what he’d asked her yesterday?_ ) _,_ but he shrugs it off and convinces himself that she’s just lost her phone. He’s done it plenty of times himself – he’s lost count of the number of times he’s panicked over it only to find out the next day that he’d left it in his locker. He’s sure that’s all it is. He’s sure she’s fine, and that there is absolutely no reason to worry.

That is until he overhears Jean and Marco talking quietly about her in the hall.

“She looked... I dunno, Marco, I really think this is something to worry about.”

“Well, what can we do? I mean, we don’t even know the entire situation – unless she told us herself –”

“Yeah, I know but... there has to be something...”

Eren’s heart clenches painfully in his chest. Something’s happened and he knows it, and his feet carry him forward before he even has the chance to think about it. “Is this about Annie?” he blurts.

They jump, and Jean cringes and stares at his shoes. “Uh – ” he starts. “No – no, of course not, I mean –”

“Don’t play stupid with me,” he snaps. He can feel the anxiety growing by the second and he’s not going to put up with this bullshit if something is wrong. He glares at them. “Something’s happened, hasn’t it? Is she okay? How come she’s not at school today? How come _you_ know but – ”

“Eren,” Marco interrupts. He’s sort of manoeuvred his way between him and Jean instinctively, and Eren realizes too late that he’s getting far more aggressive about this than he should be.

He relents. “Is she okay?” he asks again, willing himself to calm down.

“We don’t know,” says Marco honestly. “She’s... she made Jean swear not to tell you – probably for this reason – so you’ll have to get over the fact that he didn’t go straight to you about it. We _do_ think something’s up, though, but it’s hard to say because even we don’t know the whole story.”

 “How come she told Jean?” demands Eren.

“She didn’t,” Jean tells him. “I – uh – I saw her last night. After I dropped Mikasa off. She was waiting at a stop and – ” He pauses and glances at Marco uneasily. “I think it might be better if you spoke to her yourself.”

Eren makes a face. “She’s not answering my texts or my calls, and like, I don’t even know where she lives –”

“Eren,” Marco says again. “We know you’re worried, but you have to calm down, okay? We don’t even know if something really is wrong, and if something is... she really doesn’t need you making it worse by freaking out.”

“I’m not freaking out!” snaps Eren, and the boys glance at each other and then at him before he realizes that he’s just nulled his own point. He sighs. “I just – I have a really bad feeling about this because... well... she’s _Annie_. If something’s wrong then... it has to be really bad.”

“We don’t know that,” says Jean quickly, but he doesn’t look Eren in the face, and Eren’s pretty sure it’s because he knows that’s not true.

He scowls. “I’ll see you guys later,” he grumbles, turning on his heel and heading down the hall.

Jean frowns. “Wait!” he calls. “Where are you going?”

Eren huffs. “To find someone who does.”

x

Mina is no help at all.

He texts her first because she’s not at school either and if something really is wrong, she would be with Annie. He’s right, of course: she responds to all his texts with appropriate (but very vague) answers, and as if Annie herself is sitting right next to her. Only, she keeps saying that Annie’s fine and Eren knows for a fact from his conversation with Jean and Marco that she’s really, really not.

So he tracks down Bertholdt and Reiner instead.

He finds them standing by the front gate at the end of the day, heads bowed together in hushed conversation and he doesn’t need to overhear it to know what they’re talking about. He doesn’t get to the point where he can, though, because Reiner glances up and hushes Bertholdt as soon as he sees him coming.

“Don’t even ask,” says Reiner before Eren can even start. “She’s fine. She just needs some time off school.”

“ _Bullshit_ ,” snaps Eren, unable to stop himself. “There’s something going on (I know there is) and if she’s – if she’s _hurt_ or something –” He pauses. “Don’t lie to me about this. Please.”

Bertl and Reiner blink at him, and then at each other, and then at him again.

“Look, Eren...” begins Bertholdt uncomfortably. “This... isn’t something _we_ can tell you about. She’s doing okay now – we made sure of that, but if you really want to know, then she has to tell you herself.”

Eren makes a face at the boys. “She won’t even talk to me,” he mumbles. “At first, y’know, I thought I’d done something wrong, but it’s bigger than that, isn’t it?”

“It’s a lot bigger than that,” says Reiner quietly.

Eren turns his eyes to his shoes and aims a gentle kick at a stone on the pathway. “Can I see her?” he asks at last. “Please?”

“I don’t think –”

“Reiner, wait.” Bertl’s studying him now. Eren’s never really called himself good at reading people, but he glances at him hopefully because at least Bert looks like he’s seriously considering it. “I think we should call Annie, first,” he says finally. He looks away. “She’ll never admit, but you know as well as I do that she –she’ll want to see him too.”

x

It’s a twenty minute bus ride and a ten minute walk to Bert’s place, and the entire way there, Eren comes up with a number of ideas on what to expect. Mina opening the door is not one of them.

“Still here,” she says, greeting the boys with a small smile and steps aside to let them in. “I was waiting til you guys got back before I left.”

“How’s she doing?” asks Reiner.

Mina shrugs. “Better,” she informs them. “But she’s... a little liable to explode.” Here, she turns to Eren and offers him an apologetic smile. “Don’t ask questions. If she wants to tell you, she will, and if she does, don’t you _dare_ lose your temper because she doesn’t need that right now. Okay?”

Reiner and Bert eye him seriously as if they’re trying to emphasize the point, and Eren sighs.

“Okay,” he says. “I won’t.”

“I mean it, Eren,” warns Mina. She jerks her head towards the yard. “She’s out back.”

x

Bert’s mother must like to garden in her spare time, because the little garden out back is one of the nicest Eren’s seen in his life. There’s a narrow stone path that leads out into the middle of the yard, leading to a little pond (complete with its own mini-fountain-filter) surrounded by low lying shrubs and small bushes of flowers. Next to it is one of those swinging garden benches, and Annie’s nestled in the corner of it with her eyes locked on the fish as they swim about their business.

“Hi,” he says quietly. “Can I join you?”

She shrugs. “If you like,” she murmurs, turning her head carefully so that Eren can’t quite see the side of her face.

He offers her a smile anyway, keeping Mina’s order to not ask questions firm in his mind. “We missed you at school today,” he comments, moving to take a seat next to her.

“Did you really?” Annie deadpans, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

“Yeah,” he says. “Jean and Marco were worried something had happened.”

“And you weren’t worried at all, were you?”

“Depends,” he says. “Have you checked your phone or Mina’s at all today?”

She lets out a small bark of a laugh. “Yes.”

“Then yes,” says Eren, trying subtly to pass it off as a joke. “I was also worried sick.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she says, shaking her head.

“You don’t mind.”

“No.” Annie chuckles. “I don’t.”

They lapse into a pause, and Eren shoots her a small grin. Despite whatever it is that’s going on, he counts it as a victory because it’s so rare to see her smiling in the first place that, at a time like this, it looks one hundred times as lovely even with –

His breath catches. He can see it now: the bruise on her cheek and the split in her lip, and his mind goes into overdrive with an interrogation he’s sure Annie _and_ Mina would punch him for. He looks away, swallows the questions rising in his throat ( _Who did this to you? Who do I have to kill for hurting you?)_ , and takes a breath to keep his temper in check.

“It’s a long story,” she says at last.

“You don’t have to say if you don’t want,” Eren tells her, voice cracking under the strain of his attempts to stay calm.

She blinks. “You don’t want to know?”

“I do,” says Eren. “But I might murder the asshole who did it, so it might be better for you not to tell me right now.”

There’s another pause, and Annie sighs. “I’m sorry,” she mumbles.

“ _Sorry?_ ” It comes out with more venom than he means, but the fact that _she’s_ the one apologising to him for being injured by some dick makes him far angrier than he can control. “What the _fuck_ are you apologising for? Someone _hit_ you and –”

“I didn’t want you to get involved,” Annie interrupts sharply. “I didn’t want – it’s complicated and – ” She swallows. “I’m sorry I let myself get close enough to you to involve you in this,” she manages at last. “I never should have let Bert, Reiner and Mina get involved either. It’s my problem. I’m the only one who should have to deal with it.”

“Bull _shit_ , Annie!” he snaps. “Fuck, how could you think _anyone_ would let you do this alone?”

“It’s none of their business.”

“The _fuck_ it’s not!” Eren’s on his feet now, fists clenched at his sides, voice on the verge of shouting. It’s a wonder no one’s come to kick him out yet. “We’re your _friends_ , Annie, it’s as much our business as it is yours because someone is _hurting you_ – what kind of _friends_ would we be if we did nothing about it?”

Annie scowls at him. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to get you involved!” she snarls, getting to her feet too. “It’s none of your damn business whether _I_ get hurt so long as none of _you_ are! Do you have _any idea_ what it would do to me if I saw _any of you_ get hurt because of _me_?”

“Do _you_ have any idea what it does to the rest of us to see you like this?” shouts Eren. “Jesus _fucking_ Christ, do you _know_ what it does to _me_? You’re fucking _Annie Leonhardt_ and if someone can hurt _you_ … If someone can make _you_ bleed then - ” He scowls and kicks at the stones under the bench in frustration.

“Why the fuck does it matter so much to you?” she demands.

“BECAUSE YOU’RE MY FRIEND!” yells Eren. “BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT YOU! BECAUSE I – because – ” He hesitates, and all of a sudden he realizes his heart is beating too fast and too loudly for him to keep up and he’s choking on words that have lodged themselves in his throat. He knows what he wants to say, he _swears_ he does, but shame flares in his gut when he realizes he can’t even admit it to himself in his mind. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers at last. “I have to go.”

“ _What?_ ”

“I’m sorry,” he repeats. “I’m sorry I lost my temper, but I – ” He looks away. “I can’t – I have to go. I’m so sorry, Annie.”

He turns. He runs. He doesn’t look back.

 


	15. XV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Bertl does a little damage control.

**XV**

Once upon a time, shortly after Bertl and Reiner had befriended her, Annie came to school with a cut on her left temple and a bruise above her eyebrow. They didn’t really think much of it at first because bruises weren’t  _really_  anything new – she’d already been doing martial arts for years when they’d met her, and occasionally, she’d come to school with bruises on her shins so large and so dark that they could see them through the stockings she wore with her uniform.

The location of the newest one was different,  though. They didn’t know a lot about her training, but they knew at that point that aiming for anywhere above the shoulder was considered illegal in most competitions.

“What happened?” they’d asked her.

She’d refused to tell them anything and, reluctantly, they’d let it go.

Until it happened again.

And again.

And there came a point, Bertholdt thinks, where he and Reiner just figured it out on their own, and the next time Annie came to school with an injury that was obviously not a result of martial arts, they took her straight to his house and refused to take “It’s nothing,” for an answer. They cleaned up her cuts and scrapes without asking questions, and they knew they were right when Bertl offered for her to stay the night and she agreed with a tremble in her voice.

He heard her cry that night, but he didn’t say anything about it the next morning.

He thinks that was when he realized he loved her: tiny Annie Leonhardt with eyes like an ocean who kept her problems to herself and refused everyone’s help – even if it meant suffering in silence. It was her internal strength that he’d always admired because it was something he’d never had. He had always been so eager to accept help – had always run to Reiner whenever his parents started fighting before their divorce – and here was Annie, bruised and beaten by her own father, but strong enough to bear it alone.

She is a lioness even at her most vulnerable.

He is as much of a coward now as he was back then.

That’s why he’s never told her.

That’s why he never will.

x

They had let Eren come with them to see Annie today under a few terms and conditions, the main one being that he kept his cool if she told him the story. Bertl doesn’t know exactly if that’s what happened but the shouting match is hard to ignore and he’s at least a hundred percent certain that Eren has just broken every condition they set beforehand.

His first instinct is to punch the kid in the face, but Mina gets there first.

“Eren, what the  _shit_ , I told you not to lose your temper!” Her voice is shrill and furious, and she shoves Eren in the chest when he lets himself back inside. “What the hell is wrong with you? Does she look like she needs your bullshit right now?”

Eren just kind of stares at her at first, more resigned than anything else, but Mina looks ready to slap him and Reiner looks like he wants to kick him in the stomach, and Bertl watches as the resignation turns back into rage. He scowls as if he’s getting ready to retaliate, but Reiner puts himself between them before anyone can do anything too rash.

“Explain,” he snaps, glaring at him.

“She apologised,” snarls Eren. “Some son of a bitch did that to her, and  _she_  apologised to  _me_  and –” He huffs. “How fucked up is that? I couldn’t – I was  _so angry_ – ”

“You’re still angry,” interrupts Bertl shortly. “And if you can’t calm the fuck down, I’m going to ask you to get out.”

Eren’s staring at him, and after a second, he realizes that Mina and Reiner are staring too. Bertl likes to think that he’s generally a pretty level-headed guy, but he hopes his friends will understand. He’s angry too: at Annie’s father for doing this to her in the first place; at Annie for being so stubborn about refusing any  _actual_ help; and at Eren for making the entire situation worse by blowing up. It’s been a rough couple of days and he’s at the end of his rope, and so help him, if Eren doesn’t get his shit together, he really will punch him.

“I’m sorry,” manages Eren at last. “I didn’t mean to get so angry.”

Reiner scoffs. “Yeah?” he snaps. “We’re pretty damn pissed off too and you don’t see us going off at her.”

The kid winces. “I didn’t mean to lose it,” he murmurs.

“Fat lot help that’ll do –”

“ _Mina_ ,” says Bertl sharply. “That’s enough.” He heaves a sigh. “We’ve all had a long day. Go and check on Annie. Eren and I need to talk.”

x

He can feel Reiner’s eyes examining them carefully through the window, but Bertl nods at him to assure him that everything will be fine as he sits Eren down on the front steps. He’s actually a grade above, so the two of them have never really had a reason to talk. There are mentoring programs and leadership things for the seniors to get to know the kids in the lower grades at school he supposes he should take part in, but generally Reiner does more of that than he does. Bertl’s never been one to be very outgoing anyway.

He drops into the space beside Eren and takes a breath. It’s been a  _very_  emotionally taxing day, but this conversation needs to happen now, no matter how much he knows it’s going to hurt.

“I’m sorry,” Eren mumbles again, but Bertl shakes his head.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says quietly. “I know. We all do. She’s never really let anyone help.”

Eren glances at him. “You mean this has happened before?”

“It was worse when we were younger,” he mutters. “This is the first time it’s happened in a while. She never told us. We figured it out.”

Eren bristles, turning his eyes to the ground again and picking at a twig on the grass. “So you know who did it.”

“I do, but it’s not my place to tell you.” It’s all he says, and Eren seems to understand because he doesn’t ask anymore questions. Bertl studies him out of the corner of his eye, watching as he snaps the twig into smaller and smaller pieces out of contempt for a man he’s never met.  “I know how you feel about her,” he says at last.

Eren’s scowl is replaced by a flush so fast that, despite the nature of this conversation, Bertl can’t help but be a little bit amused.

“It’s – I don’t –”

“Yeah, you do,” says Bertl frankly, and he offers the kid a small smile. “Don’t even try.”

Eren swallows and stares dumbly at his shoes.

Bertl chuckles. “Don’t make my mistakes, Eren,” he says quietly. “Tell her. Especially because...” he hesitates, because like it’s not his place to tell him who hit her, it may not be his place to tell him the other issue as well. This... this is different, though. He needs to know. Bertl sighs. “Especially because she might not be here for much longer.”

“ _What?_ ” Eren turns to him, blood draining from his face even faster than it had rushed there. “What do you mean?”

“I shouldn’t tell you,” says Bertl awkwardly. “But... given the circumstances, I think you have a right to know. We don’t know for sure yet, but she might be moving to Stohess with her dad at the end of the month.”

The younger boy gapes at him. “ _This_ month?”

Bertl nods. “Yeah.” He pauses and scoffs bitterly into the air. “If it were up to us, he would  _never –”_

“It was him, wasn’t it?” Eren’s frowning again, and his fingers are twitching like they want to strangle something. “Annie would never take something like that lying down. Her dad did that to her.”

Bertl says nothing. He keeps his eyes locked on the pavement and only glances up when Eren gets to his feet.

“I have to go,” he mutters, and Bertl can see the rage building again in the way his shoulders tense as he straightens. “I’ll see you guys later.”

He nods and does nothing to stop him until he’s a little way down the street. “Eren,” he calls. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

Eren doesn’t respond.

x

Mina heads home a little after Eren does, and as no one’s really in the mood to cook, Bertl orders pizza and puts on  _How to Train Your Dragon_  for Annie while they wait for Reiner to pick it up. It’s not a thing she’ll admit she enjoys, but it’s a movie the three of them watch together to take their minds off other things. Today, he figures she just needs the distraction.

“I don’t think I should stay much longer,” she mumbles, as he comes to take a seat on the couch.

Bertl glances at her.  “You know you’re welcome to stay here for as long as you need.”

She shakes her head. “I have to go home sometime.”

“Not tonight,” says Bertl firmly. “Not yet.”

“Bertl...”

“What?” He studies her seriously, jaw clenched and eyes hard, trying to convey how much he is  _not_ joking about this. “This is not happening again. And... Eren’s right. We’re not going to let you do this alone.”

She huffs. “You heard all that, did you?”

“I think everyone within a five mile radius heard all that.” He heaves a sigh and rubs a palm across his eyes. “I’m sorry, okay? We’re just – we’re all really worried about you, Annie, and don’t you dare say it’s none of our business because it is.”

“It isn’t,” she mutters defiantly, but Bertl gives her a look. She huffs again and looks away.

“He cares about you, you know,” he continues. “We all do, but him especially.”

“I know,” she mumbles. “He’s an idiot.”

Bertl frowns at her. “He’s an idiot for caring?”

“He’s an idiot for caring about  _me_ ,” she corrects, looking away. “I’m not – it’s not worth it, you know? I’ll be gone next month and it’s not worth having feelings like that now to – to have it all taken away so soon.”

“There is so much bullshit in what you just said that I can’t even take you seriously right now.” He stares at her like she’s gone completely crazy and completely stupid at the same time. “Did you really just say what I think you said?”

“I –”

He scowls. “No. Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. I can’t fucking – ” Bertl pauses and makes a noise of frustration in his throat. He’s sworn more often today than he does in a week, and he can tell he has because Annie’s looking at him like he’s grown an extra head. He shrugs it off. “One: there is no guarantee you’re still leaving, okay? You’re not if we can help it. Two: that kid  _loves you_ , Annie. I see the way he looks at you and – don’t interrupt – I know you feel the same for him. He took out every single wall you’ve had up for years in less than two weeks and it matters because you are  _happy_  with him. Don’t you  _ever_  tell me that your happiness, however brief, isn’t worth it.  _Ever._  Jesus, Annie.”

Annie gapes at him. “ _Holy shit_ , Bertl.”

“Sorry.” He coughs.

There’s a pause.

“What about you?” she asks finally. She doesn’t look at him, and he realizes that she knows – she’s always known, and for a moment he wants to wonder why she never said anything about it. Then again, he supposes it’s never been her responsibility to confess for him. He’s missed his chance – she’s Eren’s now (whether she knows it or not), as much as Eren is hers.

And he’s okay with that.

She’ll be happy. That’s all he’s ever wanted.

“I’m happy when you are,” he tells her, turning his eyes back to the TV and chuckling as he watches Astrid kick Hiccup in the ribs. “Get your act together, okay? And don’t let him yell at you like that again. If you don’t punch him for doing it today, then I will.”

x

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written in Bertl's POV before so I'm sorry if it's a little messy. Shout out to Bay for betaing as usual.


	16. XVI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where, if Eren won't fix the situation, Mikasa will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to Bay, as always. We're almost there!

**XVI**

Eren wakes up on Saturday morning about as angry as when he went to bed yesterday night. He doesn’t need to text Annie to know that he won’t be having a lesson today, and even if he did and she agreed, he would spend more time being angry at her father than actually paying attention.

He stays in bed for an hour longer than he needs to, knowing that Mikasa’s waiting for him downstairs, loaded with questions about why he’d stormed in and refused her any answers about what had happened and where Annie was. Frankly, he feels a lot guilty about that – Mikasa is his foster sister and, though she’s reluctant to admit it, she and Annie have come to be very, very good friends – she has a right to know what’s going on as much as he does. The issue is that telling her will mean he has to think about it; has to play his and Annie’s conversation over again in his mind.

(He doesn’t want to remind himself of how much of an asshole he was to her. Doesn’t want to remember what he almost said because he’s afraid that it’s true and that he might lose her anyway.)

He rolls out of bed (at last) at around ten-thirty, shrugging on a sweater on his way out of the room and noting dimly it’s finally getting cold enough to wear one again. He pockets his phone out of habit, even though he knows Annie won’t be texting him reminders about not being late today (not after the way he’d yelled at her yesterday afternoon), and heads downstairs to find Mikasa curled up in her favourite armchair with a bowl of cereal sitting precariously on the arm rest.

“Do I get an explanation now or what?” she asks when she spots him.

Eren scowls at her. “It’s not my business to say,” he grumbles.

“It’s my business to know,” she says sharply. “You’re not the only who’s worried about her. She’s my friend too.”

He huffs and doesn’t answer. Mikasa has always been good at keeping secrets but... he understands now why Bert, Reiner and Mina were so hesitant to tell him yesterday. This is not a thing he should have a right to share.

 “It’s complicated,” he mutters at last.

“I’ll do my best to keep up,” she says coolly. She’s looking at him with the kind of stubbornness he knows he can’t wear out, and it serves as a reminder that, while they aren’t related by blood, they are definitely still siblings.

Eren heaves a sigh. “Swear to me you won’t tell anyone.”

She nods. “It stays between us,” she promises, and she climbs out of the armchair to join him at the counter. “Well?”

Eren hesitates, wondering where exactly he should begin. He still doesn’t know the whole story, he realizes – he had stormed off before Annie could even get that far (he winces at the memory) and had only heard a second-hand version from Bert.

 “Someone hit her,” he begins at last, keeping his eyes on the bench and avoiding Mikasa’s gaze. “She’s got a bruise on her cheek and her lip’s cut. I think – I think it was her dad.”

“ _What?_ ”

He nods. “I – uh – I spoke to her yesterday afternoon and I saw it and, y’know, I did my best to control my temper, and then she _apologised_ for getting people involved and I –”

“You lost it, didn’t you?” Mikasa blows a quiet sigh. “It’s okay,” she says quickly, before Eren even has the chance to react. “I get it. I would have been angry too. It didn’t go down well, though, did it?”

“Of course it didn’t,” snorts Eren. “She got mad too. We... had a little bit of a yelling match in Bertl’s backyard, and then he and Mina and Reiner all yelled at me on my way out. I was an ass. I had it coming.”

“And then?” prompts Mikasa, as if she senses there’s still more to the story.

He pauses. “She’s... she might be moving to Stohess,” he mumbles. “With her dad.”

“No.” Mikasa shakes her head resolutely. “She can’t. Not with the person who hit her in the first place.”

“I know.”

“That’s domestic violence. That’s a crime. She can’t go.”

“ _I know_ ,” says Eren, “but from what I gather, it’s happened before and she refused any sort of... well... _legal_ help then. She’s Annie. When has she accepted anyone’s help ever?”

“We can’t just sit here and do nothing about it,” says Mikasa vehemently. Her hands have curled into fists on the counter and, once again, Eren is reminded that, adopted or not, she is definitely his sister. “We have to do _something_.”

“Like what?” Eren looks up at her at last, mildly surprised when he sees her standing and marching aggressively towards the sink. “We don’t know anything about law, and even if we did, she’d never let us help.”

Mikasa makes an odd, disgusted noise in her throat and rounds on him. “Excuse _you_ ,” she snaps. “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

“I –”

“Don’t,” she hisses. “Don’t even start. We all know how you feel about her, Eren, and you’re sitting here  telling me that you’ve essentially given up, and you’re going to _let_ her go to Stohess with the asshole who hit her. _What the fuck is the matter with you?_ ”

“What the hell am I supposed to do about it?” he snarls, glaring back.

She gives him a look. “Are you _seriously_ asking that question right now?” She shakes her head. “Give her a _reason_ to stay in Trost. You’re the only one who can, at this point. Show her it’s okay for her to not be strong all the time, and that it’s okay to let other people help.”

“And how the fuck am I supposed to do that?” he snaps.

Mikasa scoffs. She rinses her bowl and places it carefully in the dishwasher, and then she turns around to face Eren properly and puts her hands over his. “You showed me it was okay to trust people,” she says quietly. “Do the same for her.”

Eren gapes at her, opening and closing his mouth like a confused fish. “I –”

“Don’t play dumb,” Mikasa says with a small smile. “I know. Don’t let her go.” She pauses and squeezes his fingers momentarily. “At least, not without a fight.”

x

It starts to rain at around noon and Eren can tell by the way she sighs that Mikasa is sick of him lying around on the couch doing nothing about the situation. He shoots her glares that say ‘leave me alone’ every now and then, because what is there to do, really? Annie’s probably still mad at him for yesterday, and he has no idea how in hell he’s supposed to convince her it’s okay to let people help because, like, come on – he can’t even convince her to let him copy her homework.

He stares at his phone for longer than he should, trying to decide if it’s appropriate to call her or message her, even, but there’s a feeling in his gut that convinces him she hates him for the way he acted yesterday and, like, how is  he even supposed to face her?

In the end, Mikasa groans, disappearing from the living room temporarily and returning with his gi.

“Get up,” she snaps. “You’re not going to lie here moping about this all afternoon.”

“I’m not moping,” he grumbles (although if there is a word for what he’s doing, even he thinks it’s ‘moping’).

“Don’t care,” she says, tossing his gi at him. “Come on. You can’t keep mulling over this, and if you’re not gonna talk to her, then you're going to take your frustration out constructively by hitting the dojo with me.”

“I don’t need –”

“ _Eren._ ”

He scowls at her because he knows she’s right. He can’t sit here all day, staring at Annie’s name and wishing for her to come online only to hesitate about talking to her. Lying around like a sack of potatoes will do nothing for him – or _her._ He heaves a sigh and gets to his feet reluctantly.

 “Fine,” he grumbles.

(He can’t be angry about something if he’s too exhausted to even think).

x

They take a bus to the dojo instead of walking like they usually do, because it’s pouring buckets outside and neither one of them really feels like getting drenched. Mikasa spends most of the ride there sending text messages to Armin and Jean, but she’s very careful about not letting him read – he can tell because he’s caught her glancing at him to make sure he’s not looking more than once. He feels like he should ask about it, but she gives him a look that says ‘ _don’t_ ’ and he heaves a sigh and leaves it alone.

The Trost City dojo has its classes scheduled so that there is always at least one practise room free at any give time of day. This has worked out pretty well for Eren because taking his frustrations out on practise dummies is a thing he’s had to do before, and he and Annie have been making use of the free room for impromptu spars and after school lessons. When they get there, though, there are sounds coming from all five practise rooms, and Eren frowns in confusion because this generally doesn’t happen.

He turns to Mikasa to tell her they should probably go home, but she’s on her phone.

“Which one did you say?” she’s asking, holding up a hand for Eren to keep his mouth shut. “Okay. Tell them I said thanks.” She pockets the phone. “The last one on the right is free,” she tells Eren.

“What? No, it’s not –”

“Yeah, it is,” she says firmly. “I forgot I have a thing on with Jean. I’ll see you at home okay?”

Eren gapes at her. “ _What_? This was _your_ idea! What the—”

“The last one on the right,” Mikasa says again. “Trust me.” She pushes him forward gently and offers him a small smile.

Eren makes an odd noise between confusion and frustration, but he gives his sister a look and blows a resigned sigh. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to expect really, but it’s not until he has a hand on the doorknob that he figures out exactly what Mikasa has done. He can hear the thuds of kicks landing on a practise dummy, and all of a sudden, he realizes that he knows those huffs and those kiais and what’s waiting for him inside this practise room.

The door slides open before he can hesitate and he’s greeted with blonde hair and blue eyes and Eren’s stomach drops through the floor when he spots Annie Leonhardt watching him carefully from behind the dummy.

 


	17. XVII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, things fall have to fall apart before they can come together.

**XVII**

There’s a knock on Bertl’s door late on Saturday morning, and Annie finishes up in the bathroom just in time to see Bertl letting Armin inside. She hesitates for a moment, hovering awkwardly in the hall as if she can’t decide if she wants to deal with this or not, but Armin catches sight of her and offers a friendly wave before she has the chance to pick a course of action.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” he says after Bertl waves her over. “But I do know that things have been a little shaky and that you could use a break so –” He holds up a duffel bag – _her_ duffel bag; the one she keeps at the dojo with a spare gi – “Mikasa told me where you kept it and I borrowed a key to the instructor’s room off of Hannes. Wanna go and blow off some steam?”

Annie raises an eyebrow at him. “You’re not seriously asking me to beat you up, are you?”

Armin laughs. “I wouldn’t stand a chance,” he says, “but Mikasa also said there are a bunch of practise dummies in storage that no one uses that you might find therapeutic. She would have come herself, but she’s been dealing with Eren all morning.” He grimaces.

“You know what happened already, don’t you?” says Annie quietly, but Armin shakes his head.

“Only that neither you nor Eren are feeling great right now,” he promises. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s all I need to know unless you want to tell me otherwise.” He hands over the duffel bag. “Come on. You’ll feel better afterwards.”

x

Annie has only been working at the dojo for a little over a month, and while Hannes may have showed her around the building before she started, there were obviously a bunch of things she missed. There are three training dummies in the back corner of the storage room she’s never seen before even though she’s been in here thousands of times, and Armin helps her manoeuvre one out and lug it in to the free practise room for today’s supposed therapy session.

She shouldn’t really be surprised, to be honest. Armin is that kind of friend, and she’s glad she can call him that now because she’s not sure even Bert or Reiner or Mina have the same kind of effect. Armin can have no idea what’s going on but still know exactly how to help. It’s a rare talent in kids nowadays. He sits against the wall in the practise room, fiddling with his phone but still obviously present in case Annie feels like sharing.

She doesn’t, but she feels like he understands that, which is nice. Still, the company is appreciated, even if she’s just beating the shit out of a practise dummy. For a little while, her problems don’t exist: there is no threat of moving away from the friends she’s come to know and love with an occasionally abusive father; there is no issue with the way she feels about Eren and the way things went down yesterday. It’s her and the dummy, and it feels good for everything to be black and white, even if it’s just for now.

Then Armin’s phone rings a little way into her session. She ignores it at first until she overhears parts of the conversation.

“Last one on the right,” he says. “Bertl was a little wary at first, but I told him what was going on. Will do. See you in a bit.” He catches her staring at him and offers a reassuring grin. “It was just Mikasa,” he tells her. “She said she’d meet us here.”

 “Oh.” This seems reasonable enough, and Annie shrugs and goes back to hitting the dummy. Dimly, she notes Armin getting up and heading for the door, but she figures he just needs to use the bathroom or something, until he slides it open to reveal Eren staring at her stupidly from the hall.

Something lurches in her gut. All of a sudden, her problems are back, and one of them is staring right past Armin as he gently nudges him into the room.

“You can do this,” she hears Armin mutter, and he offers both of his friends encouraging smiles and slides the door shut behind him.

For a moment, she doesn’t know what to do.

Eren stares at her.

She stares back. Her stomach is twisting itself into knots over this, although she doesn’t quite understand why. It was Eren who’d lost it yesterday afternoon; Eren who’d fought his way into her personal space like the intrusive asshole he was; it was Eren who’d almost said –

“Annie,” he manages at last. “What are you doing here?”

Despite herself, Annie fights the urge to laugh because it’s so close, and yet so far, from the way it all started. “I work here,” she says. “Sometimes we train together.”

He snorts awkwardly and pockets his hands. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can go if you want.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she says, perhaps a little too quickly. “We were supposed to train today, weren’t we?”

“No – no,” says Eren. “Things have been kind of messy and we shouldn’t – ” He purses his lips and his eyes drift to her cheek.

Something in Annie’s chest snaps, and suddenly she’s angry again because Eren Jaeger is standing right there _refusing to fight_. Somewhere in her mind, she understands why: she is not supposed to be someone he worries about; she is not supposed to be someone who can get hurt, but she’s here, and her lip and cheek are still healing, and to him, she’s not invincible anymore. She’s as delicate and fragile as everyone else and he can’t fight her because what if he hurts her and –

Fuck that, thinks Annie. Fuck that, because her father is already threatening to take away everything she has come to love – she refuses to let him take this away too. Eren is hers to instruct, and she will not let her father’s abuse take that away, so she raises her fists and stares him down.

“Fight me,” she commands.

Eren stares at her. “ _What?_ Annie – no – I can’t –”

“Shut up,” she snaps. “ _Fight me._ ”

“But – ”

But nothing. She’s done listening to this, and she lunges forward with a kick aimed at his torso. Eren yelps, only just managing to stumble out of the way. It takes him a second to get his head in the game but even then, Annie’s too fast for him. She sweeps his legs out from beneath him and she’s got him on the floor in a chokehold before he can even figure out what’s happened.

“You’re not even trying,” she growls.

“I don’t want to fight you,” Eren chokes. “Annie, please, I know you’re angry at me –”

“At _you_?” she spits, tightening her hold on him momentarily. “You think I’m angry at _you?_ You don’t know a goddamned thing, do you?”

“I don’t,” says Eren weakly. He twists in her grasp and tries to slam her shoulder into the floor, but she uses the momentum to roll them both over and pin him down again with a knee on his chest.

“I’m sorry,” he huffs. “I fucked up yesterday, and I lost it before you even had the chance to tell me what was going on. I don’t want to fight –”

“You don’t get it, do you?” she snarls, voice cracking under the pressure of keeping it all in for days. “I’m going to lose everything I ever cared about before the month is over, and you think I’m angry at _you?”_ She lets out a mirthless laugh, hands balling into fists at the collar of his shirt. “Fighting is all I have left, you asshole – it’s all I’m ever going to have that he can’t take away from me, and you’re sitting here, refusing to fight me because he fucked everything up and – ” She hiccoughs, and all of a sudden she realizes there are tears in her eyes and that she’s hunched over and crying her frustrations onto Eren’s face.

He stares back at her, and she can tell that he has no idea what to do, but she can’t stop it now. She’s been holding back everything for years, afraid of her own emotions – afraid to break the image of invincibility she’s constructed for herself and for everyone else.

“It’s okay,” mumbles Eren at last, reaching up with his free hand to brush her bangs out of her eyes. “Annie. It’s okay.”

“How is it _okay_?” she shrieks. “It’s _never_ going to be _okay_ , don’t you understand? _Everything_ I’ve ever learned to care about – _everything_ that lets me feel remotely _safe_ – is here. I don’t – I _can’t_ –”

“ _Annie._ ” Eren eases her off of him and sits up to face her, hesitantly cupping her cheeks with both hands. She raises her own to stop him, but she’s too much of a mess to be effective about it.

“Hey,” he murmurs. “Look at me.”

She does, but only because he tilts her face towards his and brings his own so close that she can’t look at anything else. Her breath hitches in her throat and panic wells up inside her because she knows what he’s going to do and she _can’t_ – she can’t afford to be any more emotionally attached to anything here when she’ll lose everything in two weeks.

“No,” she hiccoughs, shaking her head. “Eren, I – ”

“You’re not going to lose anything,” he tells her firmly. “I promise you, Annie, let us help you and he can’t take you away.”

“You can’t promise that,” she manages hoarsely.

Eren touches his forehead to hers, wiping the tears away with his thumb. “Yes, I can,” he whispers.

He’s so close that Annie can feel his breath against her lips, and suddenly she can’t breathe. It’s too much to handle – she wants it as much as she doesn’t in the way that she wants _so much_ to believe he can helpbut what if he’s wrong? What will she do with herself if she _does_ let them help but all their efforts fail and she loses all of them anyway? Her head is a mess and she _just_ –

“Annie,” he murmurs.

She glances at him, breath hitching in her throat.

“Do you trust me?”

She hesitates because she has never really _trusted_ anyone – not as wholly and as completely as she’s come to trust Eren Jaeger, who is sitting here with his forehead pressed to hers, green eyes begging for her to understand that it’s _okay_ to not be invincible, and that it’s _okay_ to let the people care about you help you. She’s not alone in this – she has never been alone in this, and there is proof of that in Eren even though they’ve only gotten to know each other this well over the past month.

“Yeah,” she whispers at last, lifting her hands to grip at his.

 “Then I swear to you that everything’s going to be fine,” he says quietly. “And you won’t be going to Stohess, and you won’t lose anything or anyone – least of all, me. Okay?”

Annie hiccoughs, but she nods into his hands. “Okay,” she mumbles.

And he smiles, closing the distance between them to press his lips to hers.

It’s as simple as that, she realizes. It’s a promise sealed with a kiss, and for the first time in years, she genuinely believes that everything will be okay.

 x

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost there! Everyone please direct your attention to Bay who has been putting up with me since I hatched this idea because even though we've still got 3ish chapters to go, I feel like she should get a huge part of the credit for this story. Every one give her a round of applause!


	18. XVIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mikasa fixes everything.

**XVIII**

**New Text Message**

From: Mikasa

To: Armin, Jean, Marco

Things are definitely not okay with Annie and I think I know how to fix it, but I need your help. Any of you guys free today?

x

The answer was yes, obviously. All three boys had texted Mikasa back within seconds of her sending the message, and although they still have no idea what’s going on, the fact she’s going to these kinds of lengths is a massive hint that, whatever it is, it’s pretty damn serious. She promises to explain as soon as they get word that Eren and Annie have sorted themselves out because, apparently, if things go to plan, the others need the details in order to start phase two.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Armin asks after a while, leaning his elbows on his knees and studying Mikasa curiously. It’s still pouring with rain but they are sitting outside, taking shelter underneath the shade just outside the doorway while they wait.

“I hope so,” she says. “I think they are. They just need a little time to get themselves figured out.” She waves when she spots Jean getting off at the bus stop across the road. She frowns. “You’re soaked,” she comments as he jogs up the steps to join them.

“Eh.” He shakes the water out of his hair and shrugs his raincoat off. “Is Annie okay? I take it you know what happened now.”

Mikasa nods at him and shuffles over to make room. “I do,” she answers. “But we have to wait on them because we can only start on the rest of this plan if she lets us. I just hope Eren gets through to her.”

Jean frowns at her, but she gives him one look and he sighs, choosing to say nothing else.

They lapse into an expectant pause: Mikasa fiddles with her phone, refreshing her Facebook feed over and over again for no reason, trying to ignore the anxiety creeping back into her system. It’s a messed up situation, and she knows because things were similar for her once upon a time. She will never be able to repay the people who put her in Grisha Jaeger’s custody; will never be able to repay Eren and his father for everything they’ve done for her, so she hopes, at least, that she will a least be able to pay the favour forward.

Then, finally:

“What are you guys still doing out here?”

The three of them turn.

It’s Eren, standing in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, with Annie, who’s got an arm wrapped around herself looking a little apprehensive, but standing closer to him than normal. It’s enough for her to breathe a quiet sigh of relief and think to herself, _thank God_ , because that can only mean one thing.

“Sorted?” Armin asks them.

The blush that appears on both their faces is all they need to see for them to know the answer is yes.

She gives herself a mental pat on the back and glances at Jean and Armin and notes that they look significantly more at ease too. Finally, she gets up to join them, motioning for Eren to move aside a little so she can direct her next question to Annie.

“How are you feeling?” she asks, voice uncharacteristically gentle.

Annie shrugs awkwardly, but Eren slips his hand into her free one and gives her fingers a gentle squeeze. “Could be better,” she mumbles at last.

Mikasa offers her a smile. “Listen. I know what’s going on and we all want to help. Is that okay?”

She hesitates, but Mikasa catches the way she glances at Eren and the way Eren glances back and squeezes her fingers again, and she breathes a sigh and nods.

“Okay,” says Mikasa, turning to back to him and Jean. “Call Marco. Tell him we’re on our way.”

x

Marco is waiting for them in the doorway, and all five of them hurry inside with arms above their heads to shield themselves from the rain. He offers them a smile in greeting and ushers them into the living room.

“Dad’s on his way home,” he tells Mikasa. “But the others are here, and we can explain what’s going on to everyone else while we wait.”

She nods and motions for everyone to take a seat. Annie hesitates though, and Mikasa thinks she understands when he notices that she’s staring wide-eyed at Bert, Reiner and Mina, who are also here and seated a little anxiously on the couch.

“What are you guys doing here?” she asks.

“I can explain that,” says Mikasa. “You should sit down.”

She studies Mikasa for a moment, and, at last, seats herself at the end of the couch. Eren doesn’t let her hand go once.

Mikasa takes a breath. “Eren told me what was going on this morning,” she begins, addressing everyone, but making a point of sounding like she’s explaining herself to Annie. “And... as someone who’s been in a similar situation, I’m not about to sit around doing nothing. I know how to help you, Annie, but we can’t do it unless you let us, okay?”

“You knew about this,” Annie mumbles, turning to Eren.

“He didn’t,” interrupts Mikasa. “I came up with this plan this morning, and no one but Marco knows the whole thing.”

“My dad’s a lawyer,” Marco says. “He specialises in this kind of thing. The idea is to give Annie the option to stay in Trost under foster care at least until she’s of age or ready to go to college.”

“I don’t – ” starts Annie, but Eren squeezes her fingers again and she relents with a sigh. “I don’t have any other family members in the city,” she says quietly. “There’s no one in Trost who can take me in.”

“That’s actually not true,” says Marco. “Bertl and Mina already mentioned that you don’t have any other family members here, but while relatives are usually the preferred option, if there isn’t one available, then someone who’s relatively involved in the minor’s life can take custody until other arrangements can be made. There are three people here whose parents or parent are trained foster carers. Mikasa and Eren are two. Reiner is the third.”

Annie blinks, eyes flitting to Reiner who offers her a small grin. “I had a foster brother when I was younger,” he explains. “Berwick Marcel. He stayed with us for a few years before arrangements could be made for him to live with his uncle in Australia.”

“You can stay with whoever makes you feel more comfortable,” Marco tells her. “It’s all up to you.”

“I’m sorry I organized this whole thing behind your back,” says Mikasa. “But going into foster care is voluntary, and before Marco’s dad can arrange that, everyone here needs to testify against what your dad did to you.”

Annie visibly clams up the second the words leave Mikasa’s mouth. She looks away. “I can’t let you guys do all this for me.”

“Yes, you can,” says Marco. “We’re your friends, y’know? How could we not?”

“Besides,” says Eren softly. “I didn’t know any of this was happening, but I promised that everything would be okay, didn’t I? Please, Annie. Let us help.”

She takes in a sharp breath and keeps her eyes locked on the carpet, but, at last, she nods.

It’s enough consent to count.

x

Marco’s dad arrives ten minutes later with a stack of forms for Annie and some paperwork for everyone else to fill in and sign. It’s a long and complicated process, and there are appointments with social workers to be made, and issues with Annie’s father to be taken care of, but, finally, Mr. Bodt piles up his papers again, thanks everyone for their patience, and heads into the kitchen to make a bunch of phone calls regarding Annie’s case.

Annie excuses herself after he disappears and heads outside for some air. It’s overwhelming, Mikasa knows that, she knows that Annie must be exhausted and emotionally worn out after everything that’s happened over the last week. So she heads outside to join her.

She leaves through the doorway to find Annie seated on the steps of Marco’s porch, watching the rain pitter-patter against the road.

“You didn’t have to do all this for me,” she says quietly, as Mikasa takes a seat next to her.

“Yeah, I did,” says Mikasa. “I know how it feels.”

Annie glances at her, and she offers her a shrug. “No one – not even Eren – knows about this, but my parents died when I was really young,” she starts, pulling her knees up to her chest. “My uncle was the one who took me in, and it was fine for a little while, but he came home some nights reeking of alcohol and... things would happen. Doctor Jaeger was the one who figured it out. I was already doing Kendo at the time, but I guess martial arts can’t be an excuse when the bruises look more like hands than shinai.”

Annie hums thoughtfully and says nothing else.

“It’s an option,” Mikasa tells her after a moment. “No one here wants to see this happen again, and we all know you don’t want to move to Stohess, but you are allowed to refuse. We hope that you won’t. But you can all the same.”

“No,” says Annie. “I’m not... refusing. I should have agreed to help earlier but...” She sighs. “He’s my dad. He apologised every time, and I used to convince myself that he never meant it because he’s all I’ve got in terms of family, y’know? But... I can’t live like that anymore. I can’t move to Stohess with him feeling terrified that he’ll do it again.”

“I know,” says Mikasa. “All the paperwork is done for now, so there’s not much else to do but wait for it to be approved.”

“How long will that be?”

Mikasa shrugs. “A week, maybe? Marco’s dad can be pretty efficient.”

“Was he the one who did your case?”

She shakes her head. “Doctor Jaeger took me in before we moved here. Mr. Bodt did do Reiner’s foster brother’s case, though.” She pauses. “Everything’s gonna be okay now, you know?”

Annie nods. “I know,” she murmurs. “Thank you. To think I disliked you, once.”

Mikasa lets out a snort and nudges her friend’s elbow with her own. “Don’t think this means we’ll stop being rivals.”

Annie snorts too, allowing a tiny smirk to grace her lips. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she says. “Decent sparring partners are hard to come across nowadays.”

“That, I know,” chuckles Mikasa. She sighs, fingers fiddling absent-mindedly with the ends of her scarf. “Eren gave this to me when he and his dad first took me in,” she says. “I know he’s a little childish sometimes, but he’s a good kid. You’ll look after him, won’t you?”

“He’s got you to do that,” Annie points out, but Mikasa shakes her head at her.

“He really likes you,” she says. “You should have seen him this morning – the way he’d moped around, afraid you’d be mad at him for losing it yesterday. A lot of things tick him off, but if there’s on thing that’s guaranteed to make him go berserk, it’s the idea that people can hurt his friends and family. You’re included in that, in case you hadn’t already figured it out, and if I hadn’t organized this behind both your backs today, I can promise you that he would have gotten Doctor Jaeger involved within the week.” She smiles. “After everything he’s done for me, he deserves the best, and I think I can agree now in saying that it’s you. Look after him, okay?”

“I will admit right now that this speech is really weird coming from you,” says Annie, keeping her eyes on the ground. She nods solemnly though. “I know we’re friends now and all but I didn’t think anyone would ever go to this much effort for me.”

“That’s what friends do, Annie,” Mikasa tells her.

Annie nods. “I know.” She scoffs. “I think I can promise that,” she says at last. “Looking after Eren, I mean. I owe you both a pretty big debt.”

Mikasa hums. “He’s a handful, but keep him out of trouble and we’ll call it even.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes:
> 
> 1) Huge thank you to Bay, as usual.
> 
> 2) I am 90% sure Mikasa is a lot out of character at this point, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The first is that Mikasa is Eren's foster sister, and so when she says she was in a similar situation, she really means it. This is her going, "Screw this, I did not escape from an abusive past to watch someone I've become good friends with go through the same thing." This is her paying forward a debt she thought she could never repay. The second is that this is a massive deal for Mikasa, in that she's finally learned to open up too but only in watching someone else realize that they're not alone.
> 
> 3) Someone asked in the previous chapters why no one had called child services before, and the reason for that is because foster care is one of the most common ways of removing a child from an abusive parent's custody, except that it has to be voluntary and the kid has to agree to be taken away from said parent. If Annie refused help when she was younger, then there wasn't really much anyone could do about it.
> 
> 4) Please don't hate me for how this has come out.


	19. XIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren gets his shit together (properly).

**XIX**

It’s getting pretty late in the day, and even through the downpour, Eren can tell the sun is beginning to set. Mikasa had never really told anyone – not even him – about what went down before she came to live with them, and, well, now he knows. He’d never imagined her ever being in a situation like this because Mikasa had never let him believe that she was anything less than badass – but, then again, he’d never imagined Annie in this situation either. He’d always known the girls were similar in a lot of ways – just not _this_ similar.

“You’ve never said anything about what happened to you before,” he comments, watching as his sister lets herself back into the house.

Mikasa pauses. “Of course I didn’t,” she says after a moment.

“Why?”

She shrugs. “For the same reason as Annie. You had no idea how to pick your fights. You still don’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asks Eren sharply, and Mikasa breathes a sigh, stepping towards him to grip his elbow.

“Annie didn’t even get to tell you what happened yesterday – you lost it before she could, remember?” she says quietly. “We were both really young when I first came to live with you. I’d just been through the ordeal of my life and even after I got settled, I didn’t want to repeat it. You were already getting into fights at school, and by the time I felt okay – properly okay – it’d been years and there was never a point where I could just segue into it.”

Eren swallows a snarl and turns his eyes to the ground.

“There’s nothing anyone can do about it now,” says Mikasa, squeezing his elbow gently. “It happened, and you and your dad got me out. Now, we need to focus on doing the same for Annie.”

He heaves a sigh, trying to breathe the anger out of his system because the idea that Mikasa was ever hurt like this is something he can’t even handle right now. He still can’t handle the idea that Annie Leonhardt can bleed.

“This is gonna work, right?” he says finally. “We can get her out of this? She won’t have to move to Stohess?”

Mikasa nods. “The paperwork’s done and Mr. Bodt’s taking care of it. We just have to wait for an approval.”

“You don’t understand,” says Eren seriously, “I swore to her that things would get better. This has to work.”

“I know.” She squeezes his elbow again. “Believe me, I know. But all we can do right now is wait.” She jerks her head at the door and offers him a smile. “Go get her.”

Eren makes an odd, involuntary noise in his throat, but he forces the blood away from his cheeks and coughs to clear his throat. “Mikasa,” he calls, just as she pulls away. “Thank you.”

She chuckles. “Don’t. I know how much she means to you, and, after all you’ve done for me, I think this is a start. Go on. She looks like she could use a hug – and I’m pretty sure you’re the only she’ll let hug her.”

x

There’s thunder rolling overhead, and even though she’s sitting under the shade of Marco’s porch, Annie is soaked. The sleeves of her hoodie are drenched and there’s water dripping from her hair and along her nose, but apparently, she doesn’t care. Her face is tilted upwards, eyes shut tight, relishing the way the rain feels against her skin.

Eren watches her for a moment, watching the shadows shift across her face as light flashes in the sky. She’s beautiful, he thinks, and this time, he doesn’t freak out when the thought crosses his mind. She’s a mess, and he’s pretty sure she’ll kick his ass to the other side of the city and back if he tells her, but she’s beautiful, and if he’s falling for anyone, he’s glad it’s her.

“Hi,” she greets quietly, without looking at him.

“Hey,” he returns with a smile. “You’re sopping.”

“So I am,” Annie says mildly.

Eren hesitates, not because he’s nervous or awkward about any of this anymore, but because this is the first time he’s ever seen her look so serene, and he’s not sure he wants to spoil it. “Do you wanna come inside?” he asks finally.

She shakes her head. “Not really.”

“Fan of the rain?”

“Of the thunder.” Annie hums and turns her head to look at him. “Thank you.”

Eren shakes his head. “I’m not the one you should be thanking,” he says. It’s true, because in spite of all his promises, he wasn’t the one who put this all together. Mikasa did. He was just the one who wouldn’t leave her alone until she opened up.

“All of you, I mean,” she tells him. “I don’t know how else to express that.”

“You would do the same for any of us,” says Eren with a shrug. “So, what now?”

Annie takes her turn to shrug as she gets to her feet. “I don’t know,” she says honestly. “Mikasa said to wait.”

“What about tonight?” Eren asks. “You’re not going home, are you?”

She hesitates. “I hope not,” she mumbles. “I can’t – I don’t know how I’m supposed to –”

“Hey.” Eren offers her a smile and slips his hand into hers again. Her fingers feel cold against his skin, and he squeezes absent-mindedly as if it’ll take away the chill. “You don’t have to do it alone, remember?”

“I know,” she mumbles, looking away. “I feel like I should be able to, though.”

“No, you shouldn’t.” Eren frowns at her. “Don’t start this again, Annie.”

“I’m not, it’s just...” She shakes her head. “Never mind. I just... don’t want to think about this anymore tonight, if that’s okay.”

He nods. “No, I get it.” He pauses. “Come on. I think you just need some rest.”

x

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Marco, Bertl, Reiner, Mina

Taking Annie home (our home, not hers, don’t worry). She’s pretty beat. Talk tonight over fb.

-

**New Text Message**

From: Jean

To: Eren

Keep it PG ;)

-

**New Text Message**

From: Eren

To: Jean

Don’t fucking start.

x

The idea was to let Annie take a nap at home, away from anymore people and anymore questions, but, he realizes as he unlocks the front door and reads over Jean’s text, inviting her to stay the night at his place might result in more questions for him in the morning. He grimaces.

“Do you want tea or anything?” he offers dumbly as she steps inside.

Annie shakes her head. “I’m fine,” she mumbles, glancing around his living room. “Sorry. I’m dripping on your carpet. I should probably – ” She stops herself and, too late, Eren (and probably Annie too, given the look on her face) realizes that her overnight bag is still at Bertl’s.

Well. Shit.

“I um. I think Mikasa has a shirt and some pyjama pants that I could get you,” he says, looking away. “Um. Sorry. I didn’t think about this properly.”

She shakes her head at him, and Eren can tell she doesn’t know if she should be embarrassed or amused by the situation. “It’s – I mean, if it’s too much trouble, I can just go back to Bert’s –”

Eren shakes his head. “It’s – it’s fine. I’ll – um – ”  He coughs, keeping his eyes fixed pointedly at the carpet and trying very hard not to think about the details of this situation. “I’ll bring you down some clothes and we can put yours in the dryer for the morning.”

“Eren,” she interrupts, sort of blushing too. “I don’t have to stay. I can call a cab and head back to Bertl’s no problem –”

“You’re not going back out in that,” he says firmly. He nods at the storm raging outside the window as if the idea of her leaving in that weather infinitely strengthens his resolve. “Come upstairs. I’ll get you a towel and you can change or take a shower or whatever, and then I can make you some hot chocolate or something. Okay?”

“Doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice,” she points out.

“You don’t,” he says. “At least, not if the alternative is going back into a storm.” He beckons her forward. “Come on. We should get you dry before you catch a cold.”

x

Eren will admit right now that this is among one of the stupider ideas he’s ever come up with, if only because the logistics had never even occurred to him. He just wanted to get Annie out of the rain and away from people and some place she could rest where he could keep an eye on her but he’s standing in Mikasa’s room now, staring stupidly into her unnaturally organized wardrobe, wondering what the fuck he’s supposed to do about this next.

He’s ninety percent sure Mikasa will murder him if she comes home to find her stuff in a mess – which will happen, he can feel it, because she can be as organized as she wants but he’s never once found anything he’s been looking for in her room – but he’s very, _very_ certain that it’s more than inappropriate to leave a girl without dry clothes.

He’s also trying very hard not to think about the fact that Annie is taking a shower one room over, because showers involve not being dressed, like, at all. He’s trying to be really gentlemanly and professional about this whole thing, but he’s a teenaged boy and he has a crush on the girl in the shower, so it’s proving to be a _lot_ harder than he expected. Then, as if his brain has only just caught on, he realizes that he kissed that girl today, and he held her hand and let her cry into his chest, and he _kissed her_ –

This is so not the time to be freaking out about this but what do people in this situation even do at this point?

The shower stops and, too late, he remembers that he’s supposed to be looking for dry clothes that might fit Annie, and that he’s been staring into Mikasa’s wardrobe for the entirety of Annie’s shower. In the end, he grabs a pair of flannel shorts and an oversized T-shirt and moves them into his room for her. Then he heads downstairs for hot chocolate and returns ten minutes later with two steaming mugs to find Annie sitting awkwardly on the bed.

“Hey,” he greets, offering her a mug. “You can sleep in here tonight. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“You shouldn’t have to do that,” she says quietly, accepting the mug with a smile. “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it,” says Eren. “You’ll be more comfortable in here, anyway. Plus... I was... wondering if we could talk. About earlier.”

She blinks at him, and he realizes after a moment that ‘earlier’ could literally mean anything that happened today. “You kissed me,” she says at last.

He nods. “You kissed back,” he says hoarsely, and the silence in the room becomes so heavy and so awkward that he has to fight the urge to bail.

“Do you regret it?” Annie asks him, looking away.

“No,” Eren blurts, moving to take a seat next to her. “No, no, no – that‘s not at all what I was getting at. I was...” He coughs and stares into his mug. “I really do need to learn how to talk to girls,” he mumbles.

“No kidding,” mumbles Annie, and Eren shoots her a glare.

“Annie, come on,” he snaps. “This is important. I’m trying to – ”

She shakes her head and leans over him to put her mug on his bedside table. “You don’t have to say anything,” she says quietly, touching her fingers against his. “I know. You kind of suck at being subtle.”

He stares at her. “Do you - ?”

“Yeah,” she whispers, before he can finish. She fiddles with his hand hesitantly before she grips his fingers and brings them to her lips.

“Does that mean – ”

“If you want.”

Eren pauses, noting dimly how close they’ve become – and not just in the metaphorical sense. Their noses are touching and his hand is still pressed to her lips and, after a second, he decides that that’s not enough. In spite of the circumstances from before, kissing her was quite lovely. He can still feel the ghost of her lips across his own; can still remember the promise etched into it and the surge of emotion that shot through him when he touched his lips to hers.

“Can I...?” Eren manages at last.

Annie lets out an exasperated chuckled and rolls her eyes. "Yes," she breathes, moving their fingers out of the way to press a tentative kiss against the corner of his mouth.

Eren chuckles too. He doesn't need to be told twice.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes:
> 
> 1) This actually might turn out a chapter longer than I expected or it might not - we'll see.
> 
> 2) Shout out to Bay, as always, and to Euregatto, who is not in a fantastic position right now but is making it okay for herself regardless.
> 
> 3) Annie and Eren can be doing whatever you want, just keep in mind that Eren is awkward as crap when he's talking about kissing, so he might be just a lot of a dork in regards to anything more than that ;)


	20. XX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's one last thing to wrap up and, for the first time, Annie doesn't want to do it alone.

**X**

**Dad  
Missed Calls (15)**

-

When Annie wakes, it’s warm. She’s a little confused as to why, at first; it’s never this comfortable in her own bed, and never this warm in the spare room at Bertl’s. She blinks the sleep from her eyes, wincing against the sunlight seeping through the blinds at the window, and it takes her an entire thirty seconds to realize that this room is not familiar to her at all.

There’s a pair of arms wrapped around her waist, a chest against her back, and lips pressed gently to the nape of her neck, and all of a sudden, last night comes rushing back to her: the breath ghosting against her skin; the lips on hers; the fingers curling around her waist –

Her breath hitches in her throat. “Eren.”

The body behind her stirs and exhales contentedly into her hair. “Hm?”

“You awake?”

“Sorta.” Eren groans. “You okay?”

She nods slowly, turning to face him. “Was... last night real?”

Eren’s breath hitches too. “Yeah,” he murmurs. “I think it was, at least. You’re still here.” He pauses. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” says Annie quickly. “I just... don’t want to be awake.” It’s a dumb way to phrase it, but she thinks Eren understands. A lot happened yesterday, and Mr. Bodt had said that, regardless of the paperwork, she should get her things packed and ready to go to Reiner’s. The only issue with that is the fact that she has to go home. Her father has always been absent, and there’s no reason to believe he’ll be home today, but still. It’s not a thing she wants to do, and anywhere near that house is not a place she wants to be.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Eren murmurs at last, reaching for the tips of her fingers. “I’ll go with you – hell, everyone else would go with you if you asked.”

She takes a breath. “That doesn’t make it less difficult,” she mutters.

“I know,” says Eren. He presses a gentle kiss to her forehead and sighs. “We should get up.”

Annie makes a noise of discontent in her throat, and she reaches over Eren’s hip for the duvet and pulls it back over her head.

“Annie...” He sounds like he’s chastising her, but she can still here a lilt of amusement in his voice.

“Ten minutes,” she mumbles, clutching the duvet tightly.

Eren breathes a sigh, but he tugs down the duvet and offers her a smile. “I’ll get breakfast started, okay?” he says, smoothing her bangs away from her forehead. “Come down when you’re ready.”

x

Annie doesn’t move for almost half an hour. She knows ten minutes was what she promised, but she will admit to herself that this is the most comfortable she’s ever felt in her life: she’s warm, and she’s safe, and she’s almost afraid to leave because today has the potential to be just as hard and as long as yesterday and the day before.

In the end, she gets up because her stomach is beginning to grumble too loudly for her liking and the smell of bacon is wafting into Eren’s room from downstairs. She rolls out of bed with a groan, slipping Eren’s deep green sports jersey off his desk chair on her way up and pulling it over her head.

She’s only got it half on when she stumbles tiredly into the hallway and nearly into Mikasa.

“Good morning,” the brunette greets with a smirk.

Heat flares into Annie’s cheeks, because Mikasa has this look on her face that suspects more than what actually happened – and even what actually happened was pretty... _intense._

“Morning,” mumbles Annie, staring red-faced at the floor. “When’d you get back?”

“Jean walked me home after the storm,” says Mikasa. “I got a little worried at first, because neither you nor Eren were on the couch and I thought he’d sent you home or you’d left or something, until I came in to check on Eren.” She grins smugly. “Good night?”

Annie is relatively sure that she’ll spontaneously combust if she blushes any harder, so she keeps her eyes on the floor as she answers. “Nothing happened,” she mutters quickly. “Nothing like that anyway.”

Mikasa holds up a hand. “It’s fine,” she tells her. “I’m just teasing. Whatever you guys get up to is none of my business and, frankly, I don’t want to know. There are more important things to do today than gossip, anyway.”

“Right,” mumbles Annie. “I don’t wanna do it,” she blurts, after a moment.

“Annie –”

“I don’t want to do it alone, I mean.” She swallows. “Eren said – he said he would help and – and that you guys – ”

Mikasa makes a noise of understanding, and she offers Annie a nod. “Of course,” she says. “Do you want the others to come too?”

Annie hesitates. “No,” she says at last. “Well... maybe Reiner. But I’ll – um – ”

“Okay,” says Mikasa. She pats her shoulder. “Just let me know when you’re ready to go.”

x

Reiner pulls up in Eren’s driveway fifteen minutes after she calls him. There’s a suitcase in the back, nestled in the middle seat, and Annie eyes it curiously as she and Eren and Mikasa pile into the old Toyota.

“It’s for you,” Reiner tells her, as she clips her seatbelt on. “I got it a couple of weeks ago for college, but you need it more than I do right now.”

“You didn’t need to –”

He snorts. “Annie, we talked about this,” he says patiently. “It’s okay to let the people who care about you help you, remember? We want to take care of this in one trip, and we don’t want to have to go back because we didn’t have a suitcase big enough for all your stuff in one go. Besides, you’ll be settled long before I even start packing for college.” He glances into the rear view mirror at Mikasa and Eren. “It’s empty for now, but there are a couple of boxes in the trunk that we might need, so keep an eye on it on the way back.”

It’s supposed to be a quick visit. Annie has a plan worked out in her head: Mikasa and Eren will take down her non-clothing items while she dumps her relatively sparse wardrobe in Reiner’s suitcase. Ideally, she wants to be in and out as fast as possible because her dad has been spamming her phone all week and she wants very much to avoid seeing him if she can. She hopes – _really_ hopes – that he won’t be home at all today and she knows there’s a relatively high chance that he won’t, but it doesn’t stop her from fidgeting nervously in her seat.

But Reiner pulls up outside her house all too soon, and it’s all she can do not to ask him to turn around there and then.

“You okay?” he asks her as he pushes the release on his seatbelt.

Annie nods. “Fine,” she croaks. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“You sure?”

Annie nods again. “Can – can you stay here? Eren and Mikasa can come up, but, like, just in case we need to – to get away – ”

Reiner snorts, but he pats her shoulder and offers her a grin. “I get it. Give me a ring if you need me and I’ll be right up.”

x

The house is empty.

Annie lets out a breath as she ushers Eren and Mikasa inside. The place is a mess. She’s not surprised. It always is when she comes home after a couple of days at Bertl’s or Reiner’s – it’s her father throwing a tantrum because she’s not home.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, stepping over a pile of laundry. “Just down the hall. First room on the left.”

They nod and head off.

She doesn’t follow them for a second, because it occurs to her very late that this might be the last time she’s ever here. She’s not sure how she should feel about that, to be honest. She learned to walk in this living room, and it contains what few photos of her mother there are left. But she’s bled in this living room too, thanks to her father, and every minute she’s in it reminds her of every fake apology he’s ever said to her.

She shakes herself out of it. She’s done here. She doesn’t have to come back, and she figures that’s okay.

By the time she gets to her room, Mikasa has already packed away her laptop and school things, and Eren is halfway through arranging her various martial arts trophies into one of the boxes Reiner brought with them.

Everything goes pretty smoothly for a while.

That is, until the front door slams, and Annie drops the pair of jeans she’s folding with a hushed “ _Fuck._ ”

“Annie?”

Three pairs of eyes turn to Annie’s bedroom door, and Annie swallows as her father stares at them, and at the suitcase and boxes with most of her things packed away. He looks older than Annie remembers, and certainly more sullen, and glances from Annie to Eren to Mikasa looking as if he doesn’t know if he should be relieved or furious.

“What the hell is this?” he asks finally.

Annie hesitates, but she catches the way Eren’s fingers are twitching from where he’s standing, and the way Mikasa is glaring at her father over the box of textbooks in her arms. She takes a breath.

“I’m leaving,” she says quietly.

“ _What?_ ”

“I’m leaving,” Annie says again, louder this time, and more resolute. Her fists are clenched at her sides because she looks at this man now and remembers that he’s supposed to be her father except that his hands have made her bleed. “I’m not going to Stohess.”

“Like hell you’re not,” he seethes, crossing the threshold into her room.

Eren is in front of her before she even knows it, and Mikasa’s fingers close around her wrist and tug her back as her father advances.

“Don’t,” snaps Eren, glaring at him. “Touch her again and we’ll call the police.”

“Is that what this fucking is?” her father spits. “Is that why I’ve had those fucks from social services trying to call me? And who the hell are these little shits?”

Eren scowls at him. “I’m the kid who’s going to wreck your shit if you get any closer,” he snarls.

“Eren, no,” snaps Mikasa, trying to catch the back of his shirt with her other hand. “It’s not worth it.”

“I’d like to see you try,” snaps Annie’s father, seizing his collar.

“Go ahead,” seethes Eren. “Give me another reason to sue you. Give Annie a reason to call the police and lock you away for good.” His fists close, but he doesn’t raise them. He glares at her father like he’s nothing but a piece of filth, and Annie watches as her father visibly shrinks and releases his collar.

“Annie...” he begins. “I’m sorry -”

“Save it,” snaps Eren. “She doesn’t need your apologies. You had sixteen years to get your shit right, and all you did was hurt her. Your only daughter.” He scoffs mirthlessly and picks up the box of trophies. “We could tear you apart,” he mutters quietly. “I feel like I should, for everything you’ve done to her, but it’s not even worth it, you know?”

Her father turns to her, looking as if he’s ready to beg. “Annie...”

Annie shakes her head, jaw clenched and eyes set on the floor. “I can’t stay here,” she says. Her voice is quiet but firm, and she dumps the rest of her clothing into the suitcase without bothering to fold anything. “I can’t stay with you... dad... because you kept apologising and there’s proof on my face that you didn’t mean any of it. I’m done being afraid of you.”

“Annie, wait –”

“No,” she says. “I’m done waiting too.” She takes a breath. “Let’s go,” she mumbles to Mikasa and Eren. “There’s nothing left for me here.”

x

They put her trophies and her books and everything else they can carry in the trunk, and they manoeuvre the suitcase into the back seat of Reiner’s car again. Ten minutes later, they’re on their way.

Annie’s dad doesn’t come after them.

It’s done that quickly.

“If the paperwork doesn’t get approved, you’re going to stay with my parents anyway,” Reiner tells her. “They’ve got everything set up for you. Are you okay?”

Annie shrugs. “I dunno,” she mumbles, but she glances at Eren and Mikasa’s reflections in the rear view mirror and offers them a tired smile. “But I will be.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes:
> 
> 1) Shout out to Bay as always.
> 
> 2) I swear to God this is the only fanfiction I've ever managed to stay on top of and get done in the time period it was supposed to be done in. We've got one chapter to go and then we're all done!


	21. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are we dating?"
> 
> "Are you serious."

**Epilogue**

x

_Two weeks later_

x

“Are we dating?”

The question comes out of nowhere, and Annie turns to raise an eyebrow at Eren. He’s walking her home because he insisted and because it’s so convenient now; Reiner’s place is only a couple of blocks from where he lives, and, as much as she pretends she minds, she doesn’t. She rather likes his company. He’s walking beside her now, hands in his pockets trying to look nonchalant, but Annie’s sharp enough to see the dusting of red on his cheeks and the nervousness in his stride.

She stares at him. “I thought we established this,” she says at last.

He shrugs hesitantly. “I like to be sure,” he says, voice squeaking oddly at the word ‘sure’. “I mean like, we kiss and stuff but like I haven’t even taken you out to dinner and we’re not Facebook official and – ”

Annie holds back a snort. “Is all of that really necessary?” she asks, trying harder than she should to hide her amusement.

He nods stupidly. “Jean took Mikasa out for coffee and a movie and dinner on their first date, and it’s been two weeks since we first kissed and I haven’t even treated you to lunch – ”

“Er – the circumstances were a little different, don’t you think?” Annie points out, but Eren looks genuinely worried about this and she’s having a really hard time trying not to laugh. It’s mean, she knows, but she will admit to herself that he’s cute when he freaks out, especially because he’s freaking out about whether or not he’s a good boyfriend.

“That’s not the point,” he whines. “Jean said –”

Ah. Jean. Of course. She rolls her eyes.

“You’re not seriously panicking over something Jean said, are you?”

He pauses. “No,” he mumbles after a second. “I just – I want to make sure you – well – ” He swallows. “You like me, right?”

Annie raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you serious.”

He nods.

She stares at him, because Eren does have moments of stupidity (and plenty of them, too), but this is an entirely new level for him. She would have thought he would know by now that formal dates and Facebook relationship statuses have never mattered to her. He’s done more for her already without any of that, and it bothers her sometimes thathe thinks that’s not enough. She sighs.

“I would be on a plane today if it wasn’t for you,” she tells him at last. “You know how much I appreciate that, don’t you?”

He nods a second time, but still shuffles awkwardly on the spot. “That’s not the only reason you like me, is it?”

“Well, no,” says Annie, “because Mikasa did most of the work anyway.” She tugs at the lapels of his school blazer and brings his face to hers. “You’re being silly,” she tells him. “Dates aren’t that big a deal, y’know? Because, fine, you can treat me to lunch or whatever if you like, but you know what I enjoy more than that? Killing time at the dojo with you. Don’t freak out just because we haven’t been on a formal first date. I didn’t think that was our thing anyway.”

“Really?”

She kisses his cheek. “Really.”

Eren grins and kisses hers back. He pauses, though. “So we _are_ dating, then?”

“ _Yes,”_ she snaps. “You’re going through your quota of bullshit real fast, Jaeger. Stop asking questions you know the answers to.” She fishes her phone out of her pocket and unlocks the screen. “Is that  enough of an answer for you?” she asks, as Eren’s phone dings in his bag.

He makes a face at her, but he pulls his phone out of his backpack and he laughs.

x

**Facebook**

**Annie Leonhardt** has said she is in a relationship with you.  
 _Confirm/Ignore/Not Now_

.

**.**

**.**

**.**

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End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) A maaaaaassive thank you to Bay who's been putting up with me and betaing this from the start. I couldn't have done this without her, so everyone please give her a round of applause.
> 
> 2) I had this all planned out before I started writing it but a LOT of stuff changed as it came out. Annie was supposed to leave, for example, and I was trying to avoid the abusive father thing, but it started to write itself after a while, and tbh, I really much prefer this ending to the one I'd planned before.
> 
> 3) THANK YOU EVERYONE! This is the first time I've actually stuck to a deadline I've set myself, and y'all should know that the last multichapter I wrote before this one took me three years to finish so the fact this is done already is a huuuge deal. Thank you all for your support and your comments and your kudos and, basically, you guys are so awesome, ilu. I hope you guys enjoyed it! It's been a blast to write!


End file.
